Petroleum companies and cosmopolitical practices in Mapuche´s territory - Presentation on SALSA Conference (original) (raw)
2010
HYDROCARBON CONFLICT IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DECOLONIZATION OF DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY In 2008 and 2009 the indigenous peoples from the Peruvian Amazon staged massive protests in opposition to President Alan Garcia's development policies, many of which were designed to facilitate the exploitation and development of natural resources on indigenous territorial spaces. Tragically, the protests ended on June 5 (2009) in the Amazonian province of Bagua, where, according to official reports, ten protesters and twenty-three police officers were killed. Many protesters were injured and others were reported missing. The Bagua event underscores the seriousness of natural resource development on indigenous territorial spaces. This dissertation argues that in order to move toward environmentally sustainable and socially equitable natural resources policies it is necessary to rethink these policies on indigenous territories. To make this case, I examine an environmental conflict over hydrocarbon development on indigenous territories between the Garcia government and the Indigenous Movement in the Peruvian Amazon (IMPA). Situating this conflict in the broader context of the Garcia government's development policy, the dissertation (1) provides a historical and institutional analysis of Peruvian hydrocarbon development on indigenous territories, (2) uses social movement theory to explain indigenous resistance to hydrocarbon and natural resource development on indigenous territorial spaces, iii and (3) introduces an alternative theory that explains the differences between indigenous and state development perspectives and challenges many of the current neoliberal/socialist framings of indigenous/state conflicts over natural resources. In the end, I argue that a decolonization of Peru's natural resource policy regime is necessary to create policies that are ecologically sustainable, socially equitable, and avoid violent confrontations. Decolonization⎯a complex and formidable challenge⎯suggests that indigenous peoples gain greater decision-making control over the natural resources located on indigenous territorial spaces. Contrary to the opinion of the Peruvian government and beyond the stipulations set in International Labor Organization Convention 169, this means that indigenous peoples should have the power to prevent unwanted oil development within indigenous territorial spaces. My projects adds to the Political Science literature by introducing an alternative theoretical framework for the analysis of these issues that will encourage scholars, governments, and political commentators to reevaluate issues related to natural resource development on indigenous territories. The writing of this dissertation has been quite a process and I have many people to thank. First and foremost, I am forever indebted to the many indigenous people that I have worked with throughout the years in the Peruvian Amazon. As special thanks to my Shipibo friends Juan, Limber, and Mateo, who not only shared with me their thoughtful insights about oil development in the Peruvian Amazon, but, more importantly, made me feel as part of their family, each and every time I can to visit them. I must also thank Bernardo and the entire community from Santa Rosa de Dinamarca for their insights and hospitality. I am heavily indebted to Robert Guimaraes for all his knowledge about the indigenous movement in the Peruvian Amazon and I am especially grateful that he allowed me to accompany him at the "Houston Road Show" where I was able to witness the collision of truth and power. My research in Peru was made possible thanks to several individuals who gave me their time, support and valuable knowledge about conflicts between indigenous peoples and the Peruvian state. To Lily la Torre, Vladimir Pinto and all the folks at Racimos de Ungurahui, I am forever grateful for the time they spent with me, not only providing interviews, but showing me who to talk to and where to go. I owe a heartfelt thank you to Cesar Ipenza for his critical insights and answering all the questions that I have asked over the years. I would also very much like to thank Carlos Soria from the v Instituto de Bien Común and Matt Finer from Save America's Forests for all their patience and assistance throughout this entire process. In reality, this dissertation is the product of my close relationship to Village Earth. Multiple trips to the Ucayali region, several "bottom-up" workshops, and our continuous work with the Shipibo on grassroots related development issues all played a major role in my research and the final product. I have expressed to a few people that, in a sense, this dissertation "chose me." Through these trips to the Ucayali region, indigenous peoples constantly and continuously shared their concerns about the prospects of oil development on their territories. In reality, I cannot express enough how grateful I am to all my friends and colleagues at Village Earth. Dave Bartecchi, our "fearless leader," has been there to read countless articles, chapters, and much of my academic work, not to mention providing me with a home at Village Earth to write and discuss my dissertation. Kristina Pearson, the coordinator and the energy for our project in the Peruvian Amazon, has provided unwavering support throughout the entire dissertation process. I cannot express how grateful (and impressed) I am for all the things that Kristina does. Ralf Kracke-Berndorff, our filmmaker, has been a great friend and always listened to my constant ramblings about indigenous politics in Peru. Jamie Way, who has been a remarkable addition to Village Earth, has read much of my work and has offered a much need critical eye to my sometimes incoherent thoughts. I am especially grateful to Hope Inman for her friendship and giving me the opportunity to talk about other things, not related to indigenous politics, oil development and the Peruvian Amazon. I certainly cannot forget Ed Shin, Mimi Shin, and Maury Albertson, the founders of Village Earth, without whom none of my work and unforgettable experiences with Village Earth would not be possible. vi In many ways graduate school is a team sport. I have been quite lucky to have shared this experience with a whole host of graduate students at Colorado State University, who have been there not only to discuss "cutting edge" issues of Political Science, but, more importantly, to offer support and friendship in what was quite a long and enduring endeavor. I owe special thanks to Andy Kear, Dallas Blaney, Nikki Detraz, Timmy Hurst, Oscar Ibañez, Tim Earstman who have been great friends throughout the entire process. Keith Linder, in some ways a younger brother to me, but in reality, an intellectual mentor, has helped me better understand issues and concept that alone I am entirely incapable of understanding. I cannot forget my hockey buddies, Phil Crowe,
Divided We Fall: Oil Exploitation, Conservation, and Indigenous Organizing in the Amazon Basin
This article explores the failures of the current development paradigm through the case study of the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon. I examine the complex relationships between the indigenous communities, the Federación Nativa de Madre de Dios y Afluentes (FENAMAD) that represents them, and the Peruvian Government in the southeastern region of the Amazon, to argue that the State’s conservationist discourse limits the indigenous organization’s struggle against oil extraction, preventing it from effectively representing the needs of the communities it claims to represent. Based on analysis of personal interviews with community members, published statements from FENAMAD, and legal complaints against Hunt Oil, this paper suggests that the divisions between these stakeholders are directly impeding progress towards defining and acting upon shared regional goals. I compare the desirable futures as defined by the Native Community Shintuya, FENAMAD, and the State to conclude that contrary to the federation’s stance, the community sees oil as a potential opportunity for community growth. Through examination of the current strategies of indigenous umbrella organizations and other actors in the face of natural resource extraction, my case study reveals the challenges confronting indigenous communities in their struggles to define their own development and suggests strategies for moving forward toward desirable futures.
Oil Politics and Indigenous Resistance in the Peruvian Amazon
The Journal of Environment & Development, 2012
In June of 2009, indigenous protest over the Peruvian government’s natural resource policies erupted, tragically, in a violent confrontation where 33 Peruvians lost their lives. Conflicts over natural resources are bound to increase, especially in developing countries, as governments development ambitions collide with indigenous peoples’ territorial claims. This article, within the context of Peru’s natural resource development agenda, examines the government’s hydrocarbon development policies against indigenous resistance and protest. Turning to an alternative theoretical framework, modernity/coloniality, I argue that the government’s development logic misrepresents indigenous perspectives on development, undermines indigenous territorial rights, and suppresses indigenous participation in Peru’s natural resource agenda. A more complex reading of indigenous perspectives reveals a more sustainable approach to development, one that does not reject modern development, but does challeng...
A B S T R A C T This article offers a reading of the ideas expressed in Walter Solón Romero Gonzales' mural, the 'History of Bolivian Petroleum' from 1956, and juxtaposes these ideas to the current public discourse that emerges from speeches of high officials and from policy documents of President Evo Morales' government. The objective is to investigate the understanding of the role natural resources vis-à-vis development in Bolivia at these two points in time and show the striking resonance between ideas depicted in the mural more than half a century ago and ideas expressed in contemporary official discourses. These ideas concern the foundational elements of a development model that envisions a central role for natural resources, and especially hydrocarbons, in the development of the country. The elements of this model, that include a prominent role of the state in the extraction of natural resources, expansive social policies, strategies to diversify the economy, neatly overlap with the central tenets of the neoextractivist model. It transpires that the novelty of neoextractivism can be fundamentally questioned. This model also provides the rationale justifying the promotion of extractive activities 'at all costs' in Bolivia and beyond. However, history has shown that it produces fantasies of development rather than actual development.
Geoforum, 2023
This paper examines the relationships between extractive infrastructure, changing territorial strategies, and contemporary processes of subject formation among the Urarina, an indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. We first introduce the uneven and combined character of oil extraction in the Loreto region in north-eastern Peru, and how its racialised spatial contradictions are expressed in the ethnopolitical field that gives political form to regional extractive operations. The paper goes on to analyse the case of the Urarina people in the Chambira river basin, their particular place in the geography of extraction, and the case of the community of Nueva Union. We examine contemporary processes of subject formation in the community, which combine radical transformations in the role of money, territorial strategies, use and valuation of the environment, and changes in political structure, in non-linear ways. The paper closes by examining how the case of the community of Nueva Union sheds light on broader dynamics of subject formation, localised relations to the environment, and extraction as they play out in contemporary indigenous Amazonia.
Third World Quarterly, 2017
In this article, I explore the interconnections among severe oil contamination, a state-led consultation process, and compensation practices in Peru's oldest oilfield. I discuss the way in which four indigenous organisations and their constituencies produced evidence of oil contamination, and forced the state to question Peru's current oil extraction practices. I look at the compensation demands and corporate payments that followed, and examine how compensation became a dominant tool for both appeasing increasing uprisings, and for counteracting what local people perceive as state abandonment. Focusing on the effects that compensation measures have on daily life, I analyse how equivalences between affected water and lands, on one hand, and state investments and monetary payments on the other, are established. I discuss how these equivalences have led to making indigenous ways of life irrelevant, and how this has been reinforced by the emphasis on due process during state-led consultation.
A Toxic Development: Pollution and Change in an Amazonian Oil Frontier
Commodity Frontiers and Global Capitalist Expansion, 2019
Although science widely recognizes the importance of the Western edge of the Amazon Basin for Earth’s ecological systems, it remains a region of oil extraction, with drilling sites dating back to the mid-twentieth century. The oil economy has a long-standing social and economic prominence, even in its most remote regions. It has created a deep dependency on cash flow in several local communities and has diminished, by its devastating environmental impacts, other sources of livelihood. As prices of oil entered a lower cycle in the global market during the 2010s, tensions emerged in extraction sites. Sabotage and lack of maintenance of oil pipelines, due to budget cuts, caused several disastrous spills that ruined water sources on which communities depended. Spills caused pollution, affecting directly local people’s health and well-being, but people have also perceived changes in the form of infrastructure and cash investment in remediation. Those might be regarded as a form of ephemeral, and toxic, “development.” This chapter aims to explore the kind of toxic development the region is now experiencing grounded in fieldwork in the Peruvian Marañon Basin.
Alternautas, 2023
This paper retraces the history of the relationships between indigenous people and the oil industry in Ecuador, in three chronological stages: 1) unregulated and uncompensated oil development (and conflict) between the 1970s and the 1990s, 2) social compensation, material needs and compromises at the local level starting in the 1990s, and 3) the decade of Correa's presidency (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017), marked by a new extractive compromise which emphasises the need for oil extraction to provide people with health and education, and the institutionalization of an unfair local dilemma between environmental protection and socio-economic benefits, recorded through sometimes dubious processes of prior consultation. This account sheds light on some of the mechanisms through which open conflicts can turn (and have turned, in the Ecuadorian case) into compromises and acceptance; as the supply of powerful actors such as large oil companies and States meet the demands of marginal populations for necessary basic services and other socio-economic benefits which are otherwise lacking. It is a reminder that acceptance (by the local people) does not mean the situation is acceptable. Instead it may hide cases of environmental injustice -which we more often associate with open conflict -and result in indigenous communities being left out of the analysis. This account points to the urgency of finding post-extractive development alternatives, both at the local and national level. This is particularly important in a national context marked by the aggressive intensification of extractivism coupled with a fast decline of the oil reserves, the last of which are situated in biodiverse places such as the ITT fields of the Yasuní National Park (which will be questioned by popular consultation in August); in a global context of unprecedented ecological crisis.