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Abstract
In recent times a growing number of Latin American rural groups have achieved extended ethno-territorial rights, and large territories have been protected by progressive constitutions. These were the outcomes of extended cycles of national and transnational contentious politics and of social movement struggle, including collective South–South cooperation. However, the continent has simultaneously experienced a resource extraction boom. Frequently the extractivism takes place in protected areas and/or Indigenous territories. Consequently economic interests collide with the protection and recognition of constitutional rights. Through a review of selected demonstrative cases across Latin America, this article analyses the (de jure) rights on paper versus the (de facto) rights in practice.
Notes
1. The ethno-territorial areas mostly already existed before being legally recognised. A few examples from Brazil are Resex Tapajós-Arapiuns (over 700,000 ha) and Resex Verde para Sempre (over one million ha), both of which had traditional populations living off the rainforest in the Amazon, and the Indigenous Land of Raposo/Serra do Sol (the largest ethno-territorial legal unit in Latin America, possibly in the world). There are also counter-tendencies, such as in Peru, where legal rights were withdrawn in the mid-1990s (Ley de la tierra 26505).
2. Both constitutions are strongly inspired by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1989) and the United Nations declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).
3. Lalander, “The Ecuadorian Resource Dilemma”; and Lalander, “Entre el ecocentrismo y el pragmatismo ambiental.”
4. See Fontana, “Indigenous Peoples vs. Peasant Unions.” In Latin America during historical land reform processes the nation-states have generally referred to all rural citizens and collectives as ‘peasants’ (campesinos). The rights obtained during these processes are simply territorial, not ethno-territorial.
5. For theoretical discussions on transnational activism and the internationalisation of social movements, see, for instance, Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism; and Tarrow, Power in Movement.
6. Flesher Fominaya, Social Movements & Globalization, 64–66.
7. Van Cott, The Friendly Liquidation of the Past; and Ortiz-T., “Justicia comunitaria y pluralismo jurídico en América Latina.”
8. Mexico (1990), Bolivia and Colombia (1991), Costa Rica and Paraguay (1993), Peru (1994), Honduras (1995), Guatemala (1996), Ecuador (1998), Argentina (2000) and Brazil, Venezuela and Dominica (2002).
9. Hale, “Neoliberal Multiculturalism.” The first phase of neoliberal multiculturalism saw the constitutional reforms of Bolivia (1994) and Ecuador (1997–98) strongly shaped by ILO-169 on the rights of Indigenous peoples. The new progressive constitutions of Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009) were then further motivated by the UN declaration of the rights of Indigenous peoples (2007).
10. Schilling-Vacaflor and Kuppe, “Plurinational Constitutionalism.”
11. Escobar, “Latin America at a Crossroads.” Post-neoliberalism might still refer to a system of capitalist logics, but post-developmentalism is a radical critique of growth and ‘progress’. See Gudynas, “El postdesarrollo como crítica.”
12. Nolte and Schilling-Vacaflor, New Constitutionalism in Latin America.
13. Schilling-Vacaflor, “Prior Consultations in Plurinational Bolivia.”
14. Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism; and Tarrow, Power in Movement.
15. Yashar, Contesting Citizenship in Latin America, 294.
16. Van Cott, “Constitutional Reform in the Andes.”
17. These acronyms stand, respectively, for: the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Agreement (Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América – Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos); the Union of South American Nations (Unión de Naciones Suramericanas); and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños).
18. However, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador are far from being socialist societies. Nevertheless, a high number of far-reaching reforms can be traced to socialist ideology, as also the possibilities of popular participation beyond the representative state authorities, particularly in Venezuela.
19. Kröger, “Neo-mercantilist Capitalism.”
20. Gudynas, “El nuevo extractivismo progresista en América del Sur”; and Rosales, “Going Underground.”
21. This is exemplified by the cases of the Bolivian Constitution of 2009 and the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008. See Lalander, “The Ecuadorian Resource Dilemma”; and Lalander “Entre el ecocentrismo y el pragmatismo ambiental.”
22. Kröger, Contentious Agency and Natural Resource Politics; and Vergara-Camus, “Neoliberal Globalization.”
23. Gudynas, “Estado compensador e nuevos extractivismos.”
24. Dávalos, “‘No podemos ser mendigos sentados en un saco de oro’.” However, Dávalos does not agree that post-2007 Ecuador should be labelled progressive, because, as a percentage of the extractive revenues, the share dedicated to social welfare shows a relative decrease. Ibid.
25. Gudynas, “Estado compensador e nuevos extractivismos.”
26. See Gudynas, “Buen Vivir”; and Lalander, “Entre el ecocentrismo y el pragmatismo ambiental.”
27. For example, as regards the issue of nationalisation of vital industries – mainly hydrocarbons, agri-business and mining – the Bolivian Constitution declares the industrialisation and commercialisation of natural resources to be a key priority of the state, albeit taking into consideration the rights of nature and of Indigenous peoples and provided that revenues are directed at the common good (art. 355). This is also a central policy of the Ecuadorian government, to a large extent backed up by the 2008 Constitution (eg in articles 275, 276, 277, 313, 314, 317 and 395–399), in subsequent legislation and in the National Development Plan. See Lalander, “The Ecuadorian Resource Dilemma”; and Lalander “Entre el ecocentrismo y el pragmatismo ambiental.”
28. Kröger, Contentious Agency.
29. Valenta, “Disconnect.”
30. Leite, “The Brazilian Quilombo.”
31. Hecht, “From Eco-catastrophe to Zero Deforestation?”
32. See, for example, Hochstetler and Keck, Greening Brazil; and Collier and Handlin, Reorganizing Popular Politics.
33. Van Cott, The Friendly Liquidation, 266–268.
34. Hochstetler and Keck, Greening Brazil.
35. Hecht, “From Eco-catastrophe to Zero Deforestation?”
36. The Mojeño-Ignaciano, Yuracaré and Chimán peoples are the principal Indigenous groups in the TIPNIS area. The lowland Indigenous confederation CIDOB was one of the central organisations involved in the march.
37. The Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) is a strategic project of regional integration for the common good (welfare reforms), which is a technical project of the South American Council of Infrastructure and Planning (Cosiplan) of Unasuar. In the case of TIPNIS the Brazilian Development Bank financed the highway project and the Brazilian construction company OAS was contracted to build it, which together with the interests of oil company, Petrobras, highlights the changing geopolitical order in the continent.
38. See, for instance, Fundación Tierra, Marcha indígena por el TIPNIS; and McNeish, “Extraction, Protest and Indigeneity in Bolivia.”
39. Página Siete, El Vicepresidente descarta carretera por el TIPNIS, January 4, 2014. http://www.paginasiete.bo/nacional/2014/1/4/vicepresidente-descarta-carretera-tipnis-10441.html; and García Linera, Los desafíos del proceso de cambio en Bolivia.
40. Página Siete, “Bolivia se sumó a la corriente de explotar áreas protegidas,” June 24, 2015. http://www.paginasiete.bo/nacional/2015/6/24/bolivia-sumo-corriente-explotar-areas-protegidas-60974.html.
41. Morales Ayma, Decreto Supremo No. 2366, Presidential decree, Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, La Paz, 2015.
42. http://www.noticiasfides.com/g/politica/vicepresidente-anuncia-que-se-discutira-ley-para-anular-intangibilidad-del-tipnis-35669/, accessed August 9, 2015.
43. Correa Delgado, “Cadena Nacional sobre Iniciativa Yasuní ITT.”
44. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8030223.stm; and http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,MUL464471-5598,00-ENTENDA+O+CONFLITO+NA+TERRA+INDIGENA+RAPOSA+SERRA+DO+SOL.html, accessed June 26, 2015.
45. Nolte et al., “Governance Regime and Location Influence.”
46. Ibid.
47. Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism; and Tarrow, Power in Movement.
48. Kröger, “O papel do estado brasileiro na criação de fronteira capitalista.”
49. http://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/delator-dira-que-camargo-correa-pagou-100-milhoes-em-propina-para-pt-pmdb-em-belo-monte-15521906, accessed June 17, 2015.
50. http://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2014/12/01/opinion/1417437633_930086.html, accessed June 26, 2015.
51. In Belo Monte the government does not for example follow Court closure orders, using ‘safety suspension’, a decree created by the dictatorship (Law 8.437) to protect any government project from suspension to safeguard health, safety or the public economy. Personal communication, Professor Sônia Magalhães, June 5, 2015.
52. http://www.aida-americas.org/sites/default/files/press_rel/Belo%20Monte%20ENG%2011-04-05.pdf, accessed June 26, 2015.
53. http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/inter-american-human-rights-system-reform-faces-deadline/, accessed June 26, 2015.
54. http://belomontedeviolencias.blogspot.fi/search/label/hist%C3%B3rico%20judicial, accessed June 26, 2015.
55. http://www.portal.abant.org.br/index.php/2-uncategorised/103-dossie-belo-monte, accessed June 26, 2015.
56. Kröger, “Promotion of Contentious Agency.”
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Eye on Latin America, “Latin American Green, Social and Political News and Analysis.” Blog. https://eyeonlatinamerica.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/chile-reaches-out-to-its-indigenous-mapuche-people/, accessed June 23, 2015.
61. Guzmán, Native and National in Brazil.
62. See, for example, Gudynas, Extractivismos.
63. http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/inter-american-human-rights-system-reform-faces-deadline/, accessed June 26, 2015.
