Indigenous women’s anti-mining activism: a gendered analysis of the El Estor struggle in Guatemala

ABSTRACT

Focusing on the struggle against the Fenix mine in El Estor Guatemala, this article argues that women are disproportionately affected by resource development; and that women’s activism against mining is also gendered, in the sense that they are often distinct from men’s strategies and are rooted in women’s experiences as women, and as indigenous women within a particular socioeconomic and historical context. We draw on original data gathered from interviews with indigenous women activists in the El Estor communities in Guatemala.

Centrándose en la lucha contra la mina Fénix en El Estor, Guatemala, el presente artículo sostiene que las mujeres son afectadas de manera desproporcionada por la explotación de recursos naturales. Asimismo, en el activismo de las mujeres contra las mineras pueden identificarse elementos vinculados al género en el sentido de que muchas veces las actividades que promueven se diferencian de las estrategias impulsadas por los hombres y se encuentran arraigadas en las vivencias de las mujeres en tanto mujeres y en tanto mujeres indígenas en un contexto socioeconómico e histórico particular. Las autoras del artículo basan sus conclusiones en datos de primera mano recabados de entrevistas realizadas con mujeres indígenas activistas habitantes de comunidades de El Estor en Guatemala.

Cet article porte sur la lutte contre la mine Fenix à El Estor, au Guatemala, et soutient que les femmes sont touchées de manière disproportionnée par le développement de l’exploitation des ressources et que l’activisme des femmes contre l’exploitation minière est aussi sexo-spécifique, dans la mesure où il est souvent distinct des stratégies des hommes et ancré dans les expériences des femmes en tant que femmes, mais aussi en tant que femmes autochtones dans un contexte socio-économique et historique particulier. Nous nous basons sur des données originales recueillies dans le cadre d’entretiens menés avec des femmes activistes autochtones dans les communautés d’El Estor au Guatemala.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• gender
• mining
• effects
• activism
• Guatemala

Notes on contributors

Kalowatie Deonandan is Professor in the Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7N 5A5. Email: [email protected]

Rebecca Tatham is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Email: [email protected]

Brennan Field is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 Aside from Fenix, the other mine sites in resistance are Cerro Blanco, Escobal, Marlin, and El Tambor.

2 The company was then called the International Nickel Company and underwent a name change to INCO in 1976.

3 As mining and other development entered the region and land values rose, large landlords, given land title by the government, pushed peasants off the land. One peasant protest in the town of Panzós (near El Estor) was met with military gunfire and hundreds were killed, including women and children.

4 INCO sold the mine to Canadian Skye Resources, at which time the mine became known as the Fenix project and operated under its new owner’s Guatemalan subsidiary, Compañia Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN). In 2008, Skye sold it to Hudbay Minerals (another Canadian owner), which in 2011 sold it to Russia’s Solway group.

5 Of the five municipalities in the Department of Izabal, El Estor is the poorest and the least populated. Its population is largely indigenous (91 per cent), and poverty and extreme poverty rates within this group are 82 per cent and 38.7 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, the department as a whole has a poverty rate of 51.71 per cent and an extreme poverty rate of 18.8 per cent. These rates represent an increase from 2002 data, and in general EL Estor ranks at the bottom, or near to it, on all the socioeconomic indices of the region (SEGEPLAN 2011).