Indigenous and rural women defend land in the face of extractivism in Guatemala

By Just Associates (JASS)

TRASLATED BY THOMAS LANG

This is a summary of an outline published by Just Associates (JASS) with the goal of sharing information about the fight for land in the face of extractivism in Guatemala. It highlights the role of women and the impact the fight has had on their lives and political participation.

We know that many women who resist the onslaught of extractivism do not know each other and do not have many opportunities to interact. Because of this, we believe it is important to support and outline all the efforts to recover land and protect natural resources. Women are fundamental actors in their communities and organizations, and we hope to facilitate an exchange of information between organized women.

At the same time, we hope to offer tools to women who defend the land so that they can analyze development projects throughout the country. We also hope to encourage donors and other organizations to support those who defend human rights so that they have the supplies they need to raise awareness of the effects of extractivism on women and natural resources.

JASS is focused on the perspective of women as political actors in the fight for justice and a dignified life of plenty. This is why it is paying special attention to how extractivism leads to specific forms of violence against the rights of women. It also defends their central role as defenders of life and land, as well as their contributions to knowledge of the problems caused by construction and other types of unequal relationships between humans and nature. The hope is to contribute to the efforts of women and all people fighting to restore the earth and protect natural resources. The impacts of the mining and oil industries, infrastructure megaprojects, and export monoculture on the lives of women have been documented, yet we need to continue to raise awareness of their fight in defense of the land.

Extractivism

Extractivism is a concept that has changed over time. In the current period of global capitalistic development, it is at the center of the neoliberal model. It has exacerbated the invasion and dispossession of native land worldwide.

Humanity has always relied on natural resources (water, forests, minerals, etc.) for survival, but the extractivism of today is different in terms of quantity, intensity, and end goal.

Today, the large-scale extraction of natural resources greatly damages Mother Earth. This strongly impacts the health, homes, and lives of people and communities. Generally, after natural resources are extracted, they are exported to other countries.

In other words, the relationship that a peasant has with Mother Earth when working the land or with livestock on a small scale is not the same as the relationship between Mother Earth and large-scale sugarcane and palm oil operations, surface mining, megadams, the oil industry, fracking, etc.

Extractivism is, thus, a type of large-scale industry and/or activity that invests large amounts of capital to extract natural resources. It has a major environmental impact and is related to export markets. Now, there is also “neoextractivism,” which refers to new ways in which capital is tied to the appropriation of natural resources with strong effects on the environment and society.

Neoextractivism is being developed in the current stage of capitalism, privatizing common goods and appropriating land which overwhelmingly belongs to native peoples and peasants. It causes grave damage to the environment and socio-communal fabric.

It is important to highlight that extactivism does not only occur with natural resources, but also with native knowledge and culture, including ancestral medicine and anything that can be dispossessed, expropriated, privatized, and turned into a commodity. It is a system tied to other systems of domination, like racism and colonialism. This report uses the term extractivism to refer to specific dominant axes of the model of capital accumulation in Guatemala based on the dispossession of communal and nativeland. Extractivism relies on the spread of repressive tactics and social cooptation to guarantee the outward flow of primary materials.

In the first place, ever since the Spanish invasion, the economic model that has been imposed on Guatemala has been based on the exportation of agricultural products.

Thus, it has always depended on the whims of international demand for primary goods. This means that during every period of resource plunder, the concentration of property in the hands of the few has been directly tied to monoculture. Plantations and latifundios grow crops based not on what Guatemala’s domestic markets demand, but on what other countries consume.

The territories of the Mayan people who have most been dispossessed of their lands are those that exhibit the material conditions necessary for the production of the products demanded by foreign markets. In general terms, the powerful elite who invest in production, extraction, and transportation of goods form the axes of the accumulation of capital. They depend on the type of soil, humidity, temperature, and elevation of the land, as well as the ease of access and construction of logistical infrastructure.

During the first decades of the Spanish invasion, the occupying army defeated the majority of the Mayan nations thanks to the material advantages they had in: horses, metal (for armor and weapons), and gunpowder (for firearms and explosives). The

Mayans, on the other hand, had simpler weapons: blowguns, spears, war hammers, and bows and arrows. In addition to Spain’s military advantage, it also brought much more lethal weapons: the diseases that Spanish men brought, including smallpox, for which Mayan men and women had no defense. To access the complete document, go to https://bit.ly/3QkYmIM or www.entremundos.org/revista/

Just Associates (JASS) is an organization that supports women, their movements, and communities from a feminist perspective. We work in partnership with diverse women, their movements, and communities in Mesoamerica, southeast Asia, and southern Africa. We continually develop and offer tools, training, and knowledge, standing with women and their organizations so that they can build strong, resilient, and influential movements. In Mesoamerica, JASS works mainly with female leaders, organizations, and movements that defend land and life.