Abstract, Neoextractivism and Indigenous Water Ritual in Salar de Atacama, Chile

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Neoextractivism and Indigenous Water Ritual in Salar de Atacama, Chile
by Sally Babidge and Paola Bolados


Latin American governments are neoextractivist: they promote exploitation of natural resources as central to economic development while acting to mitigate some of the excesses of extractive activity. In the space left open by the neoliberal state in the Salar de Atacama in northern Chile, the mining industry creates its own regulatory mechanisms and provides infrastructure and “improvement” projects to indigenous communities. While these projects gain a degree of consent to water extraction and the value of water for development, indigenous people also resist the neoextractivist project. The contradictions of extractivism-as-development are evident in everyday life and articulated in ritual and cultural practice. We take the example of a ritual and work event, the limpia de canales (canal cleaning), to narrate something of local responses to neoextractivist conditions.

Abstract, Tracing the Political Life of Kimsacocha: Conflicts over Water and Mining in Ecuador’s Southern Andes

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Tracing the Political Life of Kimsacocha: Conflicts over Water and Mining in Ecuador’s Southern Andes
by Teresa A. Velásquez


In 2009, farmers in the highlands of Ecuador challenged a proposed water law by staging public rituals to venerate their watershed, called Kimsacocha, as the embodiment of the Pachamama (Mother Earth). They rejected the proposed law because it allowed for mineral extraction in communal watersheds. They argued that human and nonhuman entities are interconnected and that the state should designate communal watersheds as no-mining zones to defend the right to life. While some scholars have argued that indigenous ontologies decolonize the political realm, in fact they have uneven outcomes when mobilized in contentious mining politics. Indigenous ontologies enabled farmers to build a multiethnic movement in defense of life, but this did not lead to the implementation of their demands. Instead, the state appropriated the language of the Pachamama to produce a revised water law that promoted piecemeal environmental conservation.

Political Report # 1358 Battle for Water Rights Heats Up in El Salvador

by Heather Gies, Thruthout

Sandra Valladares scrapes together a living, washing windshields in the streets of El Salvador’s capital city. With a squeegee in hand, she explained she pays 50 cents to fill the red five-gallon jug she uses for washing - a supply she used to find for free. “It’s not fair to sell water,” she said over the din of a march for water rights kicking off in the background on July 5. “No one should be denied water.” On the heels of weeks of amplified debate and several protests over water rights in El Salvador, demonstrators had decided to march yet again as dry taps parched about one-sixth of the Central American country’s population. Since then, activists have continued organizing actions in San Salvador and around the country, including a national day of marches against water privatization. A day before the July 5 march, as water trucks rumbled through the capital selling emergency water supplies after damages cut service to more than 1 million people, the conservative presidential hopeful for the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) unexpectedly spurred on a stalled proposal to protect the right to water in the country’s constitution. Get reliable, independent news and commentary delivered to your inbox every day. Critics argue the amendment, long blocked by the conservative politicians who now appear to support it, is window dressing on right-wing plans for de facto water privatization. ARENA, backed by El Salvador’s largest corporations, has proposed a bill that would hand regulatory power over water to private entities. For years, social movements have demanded regulations to shield the country’s plentiful but contaminated water resources from overexploitation by corporations for agriculture, bottling, mining and other industries. “We don’t want the abuse of water to be legalized,” said Oscar Ruiz, a representative of the United Community Association for Water and Agriculture (ACUA). Together with affected residents, Ruiz recently filed a complaint in an environmental court over a dried-up lagoon in an agricultural community where water-intensive sugar cane plantations guzzle resources. “Communities are practically being left without water.”

Political Report # 1281 Coca-Cola Sucks Wells Dry in Chiapas, Forcing Residents to Buy Water

Political Report # 1281 Coca-Cola Sucks Wells Dry in Chiapas, Forcing Residents to Buy Water By By Martha Pskowski, Truthout

The water is disappearing in San Felipe Ecatepec, an Indigenous town three miles outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, in southern Mexico. "In the past four years, our wells have started drying up," says Juan Urbano, who just finished a three-year term this February as the president of the Communal Territory of San Felipe Ecatepec. "People sometimes walk two hours a day to get water. Others have to buy their water." Where is all the water going? In between San Felipe and San Cristobal lies a Coca-Cola bottling plant, operated by the Mexican company FEMSA. The plant consumed over 1.08 million liters of water per day in 2016. Urbano, 57, explains that the urban growth of San Cristobal has gradually eaten up agricultural lands in San Felipe. He is part of a shrinking number of people in the community that still grow corn, beans and squash on plots of land passed down for generations, and drink pozol, a drink made from fermented corn dough. "Many people don't drink pozol anymore," Urbano laments. "They've replaced it with Coca-Cola." San Felipe Ecatepec is one of thousands of towns across Mexico where corporate water consumption has taken precedence over local need. Advocates are scrambling to rein in a chain of public health consequences.

Political Report # 1269 Deforestation and Climate Disruption Are Degrading the Amazon, Endangering Our Survival

By Dahr Jamail, Truthout

Sao Paolo and Brasilia, Brazil -- Warwick Manfrinato, the director of Brazil's Department of Protected Areas, has a deep understanding of biological interdependence, as well as its importance. "If we are of utter service to nature, then we provide the benefits to all other living things on the planet," Manfrinato told Truthout in his office at Brazil's capital city recently. "I have the same value as a human as a jaguar has in nature, and both should be protected, otherwise we all go extinct, no matter what." Manfrinato, whose department falls within the Secretariat of Biodiversity in Brazil's Ministry of Environment, is working on a variety of projects, including the establishment of a whale sanctuary that will cover the better part of the entire South Atlantic Ocean between Brazil's vast coastal area all the way across to the west coast of Africa. And on June 23, he and his colleagues launched a national "Corridors Program," with the goal of fostering "connectivity and genetic flux." "We know the flow of genetics in biomes [biological systems] in life is critical," Manfrinato said. "We have to re-establish this, so a jaguar that exists in Mexico should be able to come all the way here without being killed. Physical connectivity allows for genetic connectivity. A monkey should be able to travel from one part of Brazil to another, without having to pass through land that has been cleared, where there is no forest." Manfrinato's colleague, Everton Lucero, who is Brazil's secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality, was blunt with Truthout about what could happen if dramatic action is not taken to address the impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD).

Political Report # 1254 Competition for the Guaraní Aquifer Threatens Indigenous Land Rights

By Luke Nguyen,   IC Magazine

Just three years ago, the Swiss transnational food and drink company Nestlé established a zero-tolerance policy on land grabs. The company's Commitment on Land & Land Rights was as clear as day. As of July 2014, Nestlé would "engage with and seek the support of those who could be affected by investment decisions," they would "seek free, prior, and informed consent with regard to the rights of Indigenous Peoples," and they would ensure respect for land rights in relation to land acquisitions. "Nestlé is against all forms of land acquisitions that are illegal and/or have an adverse impact on local communities' livelihoods (land grabs)," the company states. "It is committed to develop its business in a way that complies with national laws and respects human rights, and particularly the customary rights to land and natural resources of Indigenous Peoples, traditional peoples, and communities that are impacted or potentially impacted by the company's business activities." On paper, Nestlé's commitment stands as a rare recognition of indigenous rights and a welcomed departure from countless other transnational corporations that continue to thrive on the theft of indigenous lands and rivers, and the commodification of nature. But if the company practices what it preaches, it needs to get out of Guaraní lands and waters.

Political Report # 1212 Mexico Reportedly Moves Ahead With Controversial Pipeline, Despite Moratorium

Tribu Yaqui in meeting. Photo: Flickr user Malova Gobernador. Used under CC 2.0 license. By Andrea Arzaba, Global Voices

A new pipeline under construction in northern Mexico has become a major controversy involving the local Yaqui indigenous community, which is less that pleased about the Agua Prieta tube's route (straight through Yaqui territory). Things went from bad to worse on Oct. 21, when the pipeline's supporters attacked a group of protesters, killing one, wounding eight, and causing no small amount of property damage. The Yaqui tribe, which has endured a long history of repression, also has a history of mounting various resistance movements. Like other indigenous communities in Mexico, members of the Yaqui tribe have lost their lives fighting against invasive private companies and non-indigenous authorities. Just two years ago, before the conflict over the Agua Prieta pipeline, the Yaquis protested against a large-scale aqueduct that would have diverted what was left of their sacred river to the city of Hermosillo. According to its design, the Agua Prieta Pipeline project would begin in Arizona, in the United States, and end in Sonora, Mexico. One portion of the pipeline would be constructed in 90 kilometers of Yaqui territory, which is protected by Mexican law. Building the pipeline without consultations deemed to be fair, transparent, and inclusive for all of the Yaqui communities would be a violation of the sovereignty of the Yaqui land, community leaders say.

Abstract, Harvesting Water for the Future: Reciprocity and Environmental Justice in the Politics of Climate Change in Peru by Astrid B. Stensrud

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Harvesting Water for the Future: Reciprocity and Environmental Justice in the Politics of Climate Change in Peru 
by Astrid B. Stensrud

Examination of the distribution of climate vulnerability, water resources, and economic opportunities in a Peruvian watershed suggests that, rather than the concept of adaptation, a focus on political agency is important to highlight the creative and dynamic political action in local responses to climate change. Peasant farmers and herders in the Peruvian headwaters are among the most vulnerable to global warming, since they are the first to experience the changes in water supplies. Leaders in the highlands claim rights connected to a fluid ownership of water that is born in their territory and demand payments from the companies making money on this water based on the principles of reciprocity and justice. These demands are attempts at taking control of an uncertain future and as such are examples of political agency relating to climate change.

Abstract, Harvesting Water for the Future Reciprocity and Environmental Justice in the Politics of Climate Change in Peru by Astrid B. Stensrud

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Harvesting Water for the Future: Reciprocity and Environmental Justice in the Politics of Climate Change in Peru 
by Astrid B. Stensrud

Examination of the distribution of climate vulnerability, water resources, and economic opportunities in a Peruvian watershed suggests that, rather than the concept of adaptation, a focus on political agency is important to highlight the creative and dynamic political action in local responses to climate change. Peasant farmers and herders in the Peruvian headwaters are among the most vulnerable to global warming, since they are the first to experience the changes in water supplies. Leaders in the highlands claim rights connected to a fluid ownership of water that is born in their territory and demand payments from the companies making money on this water based on the principles of reciprocity and justice. These demands are attempts at taking control of an uncertain future and as such are examples of political agency relating to climate change.

Abstract, Environmental Violence, Water Rights, and (Un) Due Process in Northwestern Mexico by Lucero Radonic

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Abstract:   Environmental Violence, Water Rights, and (Un) Due Process in Northwestern Mexico 

by Lucero Radonic

Water-related struggles worldwide may not involve armed conflict or direct bodily harm, but they are still violent in nature. Over the past century the Yaqui Tribe has continually contested water development plans and challenged distribution schemes, seeking to regain control over its livelihoods and the production of space in its ancestral homeland. In the Mexican state of Sonora we are currently witnessing a new chapter of the violent saga around water access in the Yaqui River valley. In fighting the proposed construction of the Independencia Aqueduct, intended to transfer water from the Yaqui River to the capital city of Hermosillo, the tribe’s struggles for recognition as a rightful resource holder have intensified. Paradoxically, dispossession is justified through an international human rights discourse and the relentless interrogation of indigenous authenticity aimed at delegitimizing Yaqui traditional resource claims.