Unequal Partners, Unequal Exchange: Goldcorp, the Mexican State, and Campesino Dispossession at the Peñasquito Goldmine

Abstract

La nueva geografía de la minería de tajo a cielo abierto en América Latina se extiende al México rural, con efectos drásticos sobre la tierra, el agua y otros recursos de subsistencia de las sociedades campesinas. Este estudio muestra cómo una empresa minera canadiense ganó el control de la tierra y agua necesaria para operar la mina Peñasquito en el norte de Zacatecas; cómo desactivó las protestas campesinas posteriores, y como ha logrado tomar grandes volúmenes de riqueza mineral a cambio de compensaciones minúsculas a la sociedad local. El papel de los agentes del Estado en la negociación y la interpretación de los contratos legales resultantes es particularmente significativo. Los investigadores debieran examinar las tácticas que las corporaciones mineras utilizan para tomar territorialidades campesinas y acallar la protesta campesina, porque éstas dan forma a un proceso más general de un desigual intercambio económico y ecológico.

Persistent rurality in Mexico and ‘the right to stay home’

“…The second main driver of displacement involves extractive industries, especially mining. International mining corporations, which present themselves as transparent economic investors, also may be involved in negotiations with drug cartels to speed up the displacement process in targeted states with significant rural population such as Zacatecas and Sinaloa (Garibay et al 2011;Lohmuller 2015). The visible presence of internally displaced people in large cities and at the US border is dramatic, and human rights groups are beginning to produce regular reports (CMDPDH 2019).…”

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

“…Again, that the land is not actually inhabited by the claimants only adds to the tension. This is well illustrated when considered in contrast to similar struggles in Mexico where local land ownership has proven fruitless against mining or other nonlocal interests (Garibay and Balzaretti 2009;Garibay et al 2011;Peña and Herrera 2008).…”

Resistance to Canadian mining projects in Mexico: lessons from the lifecycle of the San Xavier Mine in San Luis Potosí

“…All of this has undermined the corporatist political system that regulated the demands of unionized miners during the 71 years of uninterrupted rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Moreover, labor segmentation divides workers with "permanent" contracts from those with "temporary" ones, with the latter typically being offered to the local population to construct infrastructure and provide services (Garibay 2010;Garibay et al 2011).…”

“…In practice, however, ecological and economic factors overlap in the political ecological analysis of mining conflicts in Mexico and Latin America. Garibay et al (2011), for example, in an ethnographic study of the conflict around Goldcorp's Peñasquito mine in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, illustrate how this Canadian corporation -with the support of key state agencies -established a relationship with the affected population geared toward "taking the greatest share of wealth possible and transferring the environmental and social costs to the local population with impunity" (p.155). These costs include the relocation of human settlements, loss of farming and ranching land, rapid depletion of underground water sources, and various forms of toxic contamination.…”