Canada's key role in supporting the 2009 coup d'état in Honduras is emblematic of a new Canadian imperialist positioning in world affairs. A close reading of Canadian state responses to the coup and the repression that followed points to the apparent contradiction in its being an outspoken supporter of a violent and antidemocratic regime despite rhetorical commitments to peace and security. The contradiction can be explained in terms of the extent of Canadian economic investment in Honduras and an understanding of Canada as a secondary imperial power committed to imposing and maintaining conditions in Honduras that will protect that investment. The promotion of hyper-neoliberalism in Honduras, then, is representative of Canada's larger projects for the Global South in a context in which Canadian capital is aggressively expanding its reach.
Shipley (número abierto de septiembre)El rol clave de Canadá en apoyar el golpe de estado en Honduras es emblemático de un nuevo posicionamiento imperialista canadiense en los asuntos mundiales. Una lectura detallada de respuestas gubernamentales canadienses al golpe y la subsiguiente represión señala su aparente contradicción entre ser un abierto defensor de un régimen violento y antidemocrático a pesar de los compromisos retóricos con la paz y la seguridad. Se puede explicar la contradicción en términos del alcance de la inversión económica canadiense en Honduras y una percepción de Canadá como un poder imperial secundario comprometido con imponer y mantener condiciones en Honduras que protegerían esa inversión. Promover el hiper-neoliberalismo en Honduras es entonces representador de los proyectos mayores de Canadá para el Sur Global en un contexto donde el capital canadiense está ampliando su alcance de manera agresiva.
We are witnessing in the 21 st century a dramatic new wave of enclosures of common resources and traditional or indigenous landholdings, as small agrarian producers across the global South are losing their land to large corporations and landowners, especially in the agribusiness and extractive industries. In the context of competing theories about land grabbing and the global commons, this article will offer a detailed empirical account of the strategies by which capital has seized land from smallholders and communities in Honduras, with emphasis on the wide variety of tactics that are used to both grab the land itself and also to maintain an aura of legality around a process that often includes at least the threat of violence.
While there is a growing literature on the phenomenon of land seizure by agribusiness and extractive industries, and their disastrous social and ecological effects around the world, there is often a shroud of vagueness and mystification about the concrete practices by which extractive companies come to gain access to the land itself. This is especially true since these companies increasingly veil their activities in plausible claims of “social responsibility.” This article documents the strategies by which foreign and especially Canadian capital has been grabbing and maintaining its control over land for mega-developments in Honduras, with an eye to the ways in which different tactics are adapted to each particular context in which they are applied. The purpose is to demonstrate the flexibility and complexity of these strategies and to lay the groundwork for future studies of these concrete practices in order to supplement the existing literature on land seizure.
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