Orden simulado: hidroeléctricas, territorio y deterioro socioambiental en poblaciones totonacas y nahuas de México

• Main Authors: Carlos Alberto Casas Mendoza, Claudia Morales Carbajal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2017-12-01
• Series: e-cadernos ces
• Subjects: hydroelectric; nahuas; simulation; territory; totonacos
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/eces/2379

In this article we analyze two cases of socio-environmental impact and dispossession (as used by David Harvey, 2004), produced by the expansion of a conglomeration of hydroelectric companies operating in two indigenous regions in Mexico: the region Nahua of the Sierra de Zongolica in the state of Veracruz, and the Nahua Totonaca region of the Sierra Norte, in the state of Puebla. The characteristics of these projects demonstrate that we are facing a model of hydroelectric exploitation using old and new strategies of territorial expropriation which has led to serious conflicts between the different indigenous populations who live there. This has given rise to mobilizations and forms of collective organization. In order to characterize the model above mentioned, we use the concept of “simulated order” to refer to the hydroelectric company’s forms of representation and self-entitlement of “legitimacy” to carry out its exploitation and appropriation of common goods.