The Price of Development: Evaluating Impacts of Neoliberal Multiculturalism and Settler Violence on Indigenous and Afro-Descendent Groups in Honduras (original) (raw)
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Humanity & society
The Garifuna people of Trujillo, Honduras, wryly call it la maldición-the curse. Despite the expansive resources of the area and the sheer amount of valuable commodities that have left from its shores, most of the local people remain poor, with little access to sanitation, reliable electricity, literacy, security, or employment. This study explores the ways in which private tourism development projects conspire with national and international politics and economics to perpetuate la maldición. An analysis of 40 qualitative interviews, three focus groups, and survey data from the Trujillo area is combined with secondary historical, economic, and political data regarding the national and international processes in which local dynamics are embedded. Although past research has shown it to be possible for development projects to be designed in a way that benefits indigenous populations, in the case of Trujillo, Honduras, macroimperial, mesoimperial and microimperial processes conspire to assure that such projects exploit and marginalize instead of include and benefit local people.
When Afro Becomes (like) Indigenous: Garifuna and Afro‐Indigenous Politics in Honduras
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean …, 2007
universit y of california, santa cruz r e s u m e n Este artículo explora las políticas de representación y alianza entre organizaciones garífunas e indígenas en Honduras, trazando el desarrollo de una convergencia afroindígena que ha venido desarrollando rupturas internas en los últimos años. La versión hondureña de multiculturalismo representa quizás el caso más claro en Latinoamérica en donde las poblaciones indígenas y afrodescendientes han sido "reconocidas" como sujetos étnicos con condiciones legales equivalentes. Al enfocarme en las historias recientes de los procesos organizativos político-culturales garífunas, muestro cómo los garífunas se "visibilizaron" como un pueblo "autóctono" con derechos "indígenas" derribando así las frecuentes distinciones entre "lo negro" y "lo indígena." Luego, analizo tensiones recientes dentro de las organizaciones étnicas en relación a las políticas multiculturales del estado. Aunque la equivalencia jurídica establecida en los años noventa entre Garífunas e indígenas no ha sido abiertamente desafiada por el estado, los esfuerzos gubernamentales por marginar la más fuerte corriente de oposición del activismo étnico han contribuido a crear divisiones entre organizaciones étnicas y alianzas afroindígenas.
Conservation by racialized dispossession: The making of an eco-destination on Honduras's North Coast
Within the context of neoliberal conservation and ecotourism development, the Honduran state has prioritized the desires of foreign tourists and private investors over the needs of indigenous and black coastal inhabitants, and increasingly this is leading to state-sanctioned violence against marginalized groups. I use Peluso's analytic of coercive conservation (1993) to show how conservation practice furthers the expansionist policies of the state and elite investors while simultaneously dehumanizing the indigenous peoples that depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. While Garífuna culture is central to Honduras's ecotourism ambitions, their livelihoods, in the eyes of many developers and conservation NGOs, are a potential threat to the viability of the emerging tourism imaginary. Black and indigenous coastal inhabitants are valued for the cultural cache they add to regional tourism plans, yet denigrated for their inherent ''backwardness'' and presumed inability to respect the delicate ecosystems they inhabit. This imaginary authorizes material practices of racialized dispossession, which were set in motion by neoliberal conservation regimes designed to exploit the natural and cultural resources upon which tourism development is premised.
Following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the Honduran government introduced legislative reforms designed to generate investment opportunities in energy, mining and tourism and to expedite the post-disaster recovery. This experiment in "disaster capitalism" provided a blueprint for the recovery strategy implemented by the government of Porfirio Lobo after the 2009 coup against Manuel Zelaya. The similarities between these two historical conjunctures necessitate a deeper engagement with the meaning of extractivism in post-disaster contexts, particularly in relation to so-called sustainable tourism development. While multilateral aid institutions have claimed tourism as a sustainable alternative to more exploitative forms of economic development, this paper draws on ethnographic research in a coastal Garifuna community to argue that tourism is analogous with extractivism. By analyzing the collective action and resistance of black and Indigenous organizations for territorial autonomy, this paper elucidates the connections between traditional extractive industries and tourism, both of which rely on state-orchestrated natural resource expropriation, enclosure and dispossession, resulting in widespread environmental degradation and ecological insecurity for coastal Indigenous communities. The paper highlights how neoliberal tourism policies are advanced under the guise of ecotourism and sustainable development, while creating the conditions for extractivism to take hold within black and Indigenous territories.
Questions of Indigeneity and the (Re)-Emergent Ch'orti' Maya of Honduras
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 2010
Entre el espacio de unos años, los Ch'orti'de Honduras salieron de una identidad débil y vergonzosa a tener un movimiento étnico con miles de miembros y tan fuerte que apresuró el gobierno nacional. La volatilidad de tal identidades en la época de derechos y reparaciones indígenas exige un análisis que reconozca la construcció n social de identidades de grupos, pero atenció n ú nica a procesos de construcció n de corto plazo es impracticable y engañadora. La gente utiliza cultura existente para reconocer y fortalecer fronteras étnicas. Tal cultura y las identidades que moldea es evidencia clave en decidir si los demandantes indígenas son legítimas, o si están aprovechándose de recursos mejor destinados a otros. In the early 1990s, the Honduran Ch'orti's denied their indigenous heritage; within a few years, however, they had formed a fully fledged ethnic movement with thousands of members putting pressure on the government for land. The volatility of such changing identities in an era of indigenous rights and remuneration lends strong support to the social construction approach to group identity, but extreme versions of this approach are impractical and misleading. People use pre-existing culture to both recognize and reinforce ethnic boundaries. Such culture and the identities it informs are useful in deciding whether people have legitimate claims based on indigeneity, or are usurping resources meant for others in greater need.
Abya Yala: Revista sobre Acesso a Justica e Direitos nas Americas, Vol 2, No 1 , 2018
Protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline led by water protectors from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota have brought human rights violations related to Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and sustainable development into the foreground of political debate in the United States. The struggle at Standing Rock has been strengthened by a coalition formed with activists from other Indigenous Nations, including representatives from the Amazon Basin, and from non-Indigenous movements and political organizations such as the Green Party and #BlackLivesMatter. This article reflects upon the centrality of Indigenous Sovereignty within the broader struggle for human rights and democracy in their most inclusive and substantive senses, especially in societies whose development has been built upon the violence of colonial expansion, white supremacy, and heteropatriarchy. The article also situates Indigenous rights within regimes of multiple articulated alterities in which the subjugation and dispossession of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples have been historically differentiated yet intertwined in the Americas. The article offers a multi-sited framework for understanding the convergent and divergent points of reference in the logics of Indigenous and Afro-descendant identity, the relationship with the State and Market, and connections to the material and spiritual resources of land. Attention is directed to cases in the United States, Honduras, and Suriname (including those of communities that define themselves as "Afro-Indigenous") in which some notion of common ground, affinity, or alliance with past or present-day Indigenous peoples has been mobilized in Afro-descendants' collective claims on rights to land, development, and cultural resources. RESUMO Protestos contra o acesso ao Gasoduto de Dakota liderado por protetores da água da tribo Standing Rock na Dakota do norte trouxe violações dos direitos humanos relacionados à soberania Indígena, justiça ambiental e desenvolvimento sustentável ao primeiro plano do debate político nos Estados Unidos. A luta em Standing Rock foi reforçada por uma coligação formada por ativistas de outras Nações Indígenas, incluindo representantes da Bacia Amazônica, de movimentos não-Indígena e de organizações políticas como a Green Party e o #BlackLivesMatter (#VidasNegrasImportam). Este artigo reflete sobre a centralidade da Soberania Indígena dentro da luta mais ampla pelos direitos humanos e pela democracia em seus sensos mais inclusivos e substantivos, especialmente em sociedades cujo desenvolvimento foi construído sobre a violência de expansão colonial, a supremacia branca e o heteropatriarcado. O artigo também situa direitos Indígenas dentro de regimes de alteridades múltiplas articuladas, nas quais o subjugamento e a desapropriação de povos Indígenas e Afro-descendentes foram historicamente diferenciados ainda interligado nas Américas. O artigo oferece um enquadramento multi-localizado para o entendimento da convergência e divergência de pontos da referência na lógica identitária de Indígenas e de Afro-descendentes, a relação entre o Estado e o Marcado, e conexões aos recursos materiais e espirituais de uma terra. A atenção é direcionada aos casos nos Estados Unidos, Honduras, e Suriname (incluindo aqueles das comunidades, as quais se definem como "Afro-Indígena") na qual alguma noção básica de solo, afinidade, ou aliança com povos Indígenas do passado o do presente tem sido mobilizada nas reivindicações coletivas Afro-descendentes ao direito à terra, ao desenvolvimento e aos recursos culturais.