Sustainable mining, indigenous rights and conservation: conflict and discourse in Wirikuta/Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Abstract

This paper is about the ongoing conflict between elements of the Huichol people of western Mexico with allied NGOs, and the Canadian mining company First Majestic in the Wirikuta/Catorce region in northern Mexico. Specific groups of the Huichol make yearly 400 km pilgrimages from their communities in western Mexico to Wirikuta, a vast region they consider highly sacred and therefore, in which mining cannot be tolerated. However, mining has existed in the region for over 200 years, and the local, permanent, non-Huichol inhabitants of this region have shown a strong support for First Majestic's underground silver mining project. We center our analysis on discourse, highlighting the underlying discursive systems or languages that shape and support them. In our framework, languages are considered as systems through which claims of morality, legitimacy and truth are produced and communicated in the public sphere by social actors in order to mobilize people and resources. We identify three central languages in play throughout this conflict: the language of indigenous rights, the scientific language of biodiversity conservation, and the language of development, particularly as expressed through the notion of ''sustainable mining.'' We argue that the role of discourse in conflict is central in the development of conflicts and useful for their understanding. Although the discourse of indigenous rights has proven effective for the Huichols to temporarily halt the mining project, the company's use of the language of development, as in their ''community projects'', has been successful in legitimizing the project and strengthening local support. The language of conservation, invoked in parallel to claims in terms of indigenous rights, has had mixed results for the Huichols. Finally, we seek to establish connections from the Wirikuta/Catorce conflict to broader trends in national policy and global issues of land/resource conflicts between communities and extractive industries.

Las Comunidades Indígenas Y La Relación Con La Industria Minera en México

“…Los huicholes peregrinan cada año alrededor de 400 kilómetros para honrar a sus antepasados, hacer penitencia y recoger peyote; una peregrinación es un acto de comunión con los ancestros, los hombres huicholes hacen penitencia y ofrendas a ellos con el fin de mantener el equilibrio de la naturaleza. Según Boni et al (2015), el recorrido va desde sus comunidades hasta el lugar sagrado; es decir, los huicholes no viven en la zona minera, pero según sus tradiciones, ésta es territorio sagrado. Tanto las tradiciones ancestrales como la minería han coexistido en este lugar por más de 200 años.…”

“…Tanto las tradiciones ancestrales como la minería han coexistido en este lugar por más de 200 años. Esta región por su aridez había permanecido deshabitada hasta finales del siglo XVIII, cuando se descubrieron los yacimientos de plata, a hoy es una zona minera y con vocación turística (Boni et al 2015). El área ceremonial principal (Cerro Quemado), es el lugar donde finaliza la peregrinación y se hacen las ofrendas a los antepasados, se encuentra dentro del área natural protegida, sitio sagrado natural que tiene 140 mil hectáreas.…”

“…Dada la cohesión y la organización social, en el 2012 se suspende provisionalmente el proyecto minero La Luz de Real Bonanza. El conflicto tiene varios discursos, el primero es la minería sustentable y la responsabilidad social que ha venido ejerciendo la empresa minera en la zona, y el segundo es la preservación de las tradiciones y formas de vida (Boni et al 2015). No obstante, en la región la pequeña minería es de carácter individual y/o familiar, produce el 0.22% de oro y el 0.14% de plata, y no genera conflictos sociales de gran impacto (ONU 2013).…”

#YoSoy132 and the ‘Mexican Spring’ of 2012: Between Electoral Engagement and Democratisation

“…Thus the movement started to build links with other more autonomous, localist, movements, like that of the Huichol First Nation, against the destruction of their UN World Heritage-protected religious site at Wirikuta by Canadian opencast mining company First Majestic, and of Cheran, an autonomous Purepecha first nation community in the state of Michoacan, fighting to protect their ancestral forests from narco-controlled illegal logging (Boni, Garibay and McCall, 2014;Del Conde, 2015). However, the autonomist, anarchist and anti-capitalist lefts, based mainly in the state universities, remained diffident towards the movement.…”

Creating common ground : The role of Indigenous Peoples’ sacred natural sites in conservation practice, management and policy

“…I also apply discourse analysis (Boni et al 2015) to the field programmes and action research carried out with and by the NGO's. I combine this with my own ethnographic research data obtained through participant observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews through snow-ball sampling methods (Bernard, 2006).…”