History, violence, and the emergence of Guatemala’s mining sector

Abstract

Guatemala is a polarized country with a minority of European-descended elites controlling politics and economics while an indigenous majority is systematically excluded from participation in public life. Despite the existence of multicultural legislation that purports to empower indigenous peoples, they continue to be ignored in economic policy and practice. Repressive violence continues to be the norm, a practice rooted in the colonization of the region. Violence is not restricted to physical assaults against bodies but exists in the structural conditions of the world economy. This article examines why violence manifests the way it does and among whom through a world systems lens that interrogates how histories of ethno-racialized exclusion remain embedded in the Guatemalan state and market relations. I argue that the enduring legacy of state violence in Guatemala persists through economic decisions and political practices made by elites with specific attention to the extractive sector. The article begins with a discussion of indigenous–criollo relations in the Guatemalan context, proceeds to discuss the historical origins of large-scale mining in the period of the internal armed conflict, and concludes with a case study of the Marlin Mine as the first industrial mining project since the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996.

Keywords:

• extraction
• indigenous peoples
• Central America
• gold
• Guatemala

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ben Marley and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier drafts of this article. I also want to thank the many people that were interviewed and participated in this project in San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, and Guatemala City.

ORCID

Samantha Fox http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6277-7363

Notes

1. I use the term ethno-racialized because both race and ethnicity as ascribed identities are given to indigenous peoples that are deployed in a manner meant to oppress through denigration.

2. Caso Ilustrativo No. 100.

3. Companies attracted by Guatemala’s newfound stability and amiable mining code include Consolidated Ramrod Gold Corp (Canada), Intrepid Minerals (Canada), BHP (Australia), Minera Orvana Guatemala (Canada), Aurora Gold Corporation (Canada), Montana Gold Corporation (Canada, later acquired by US mining firm Glamis Gold), Tombstone Explorations Co (Canada), Mar-West Resources (Canada) and Mayans Mineral Explorations, a subsidiary of Ontario Limited (Canada).

4. Actually, a land acquisition company Peridot, S.A. made the land purchases. Land was purchased from individuals who had usufruct rights but not individually held titles to private property.

5. At least 174 km of mining tunnels have been installed for the Marlin Mine without any notification of those living above who daily feel the blasts as they tend to their animals and crops (Russell 2015).

6. By comparison, in the 2004 federal elections less than 55% of the voting population voted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samantha Fox

Samantha Fox is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Binghamton University. She is currently researching development, autonomy, and the mining industry in Central America.