Abstract
Based on extensive interviews, fieldwork and archival research conducted in southern Mexico, this article explores and analyzes contrasting water-security perspectives of diverse stakeholders in flood-prone portions of the transboundary Suchiate River basin. Complexities of transboundary water issues along an international river that is also a border produce power relationships between the Mexican state and inhabitants, plus historical tensions with riparian neighbour Guatemala, and diverse meanings among local stakeholders. The Mexican state conceptualizes water security as a conventional national-security issue, whereas the basin’s rural inhabitants consider it a matter of human security, albeit in diverse ways that provoke internal conflicts.
Acknowledgement
This paper was first presented at the Workshop "Multidisciplinary ethnographies of power in cross-border sustainable development and environmental security cases", 6-7 October 2016.