Infrastructure (Re)worldings

Hydroelectric dams, community rupture and resistance

Susanne Hofmann talks to anthropologist and activist Mónica Montalvo from Sandía Digital about the history of hydroelectric projects in Mexico and resistance against them, with examples from Jalisco and Nayarit. They highlight the coloniality of those infrastructure projects that cause displacement and community rupture, but also discuss possible energy solutions that are small-scale, community-managed and sustainable. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio production: Susanne Hofmann

Climate Crisis, Wind Energy and Community Resistance

Gemaly Padua Uscanga interviews Rosa Marina Flores Cruz, Afro-Zapotec and member of the Assembly of Peoples of the Isthmus in Defence of Land and Territory (APIIDTT), as well as of the Indigenous Futures Network. They talk about the community resistance against the installation of wind parks in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the consequences of the global North’s green energy boom, and about Indigenous alternatives. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio production: Susanne Hofmann

Extractivism, Megaprojects and Indigenous Peoples in the 21st Century

Rita Valencia talks to Gilberto López y Rivas, research professor at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) Morelos. He is a long-term contributor to the Mexican newspaper La Jornada and committed to the struggles of Indigenous peoples and peasants. They talk about the relationship of Indigenous peoples and the state, the chances of legal defence against extractivist megaprojects, and the Government’s security strategy. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio production: Gemaly Padua Uscanga

Almost Two Decades of Resistance Against the La Parota Hydroelectric Dam

Host Astrid Chavelas interviews José Raymundo Díaz Taboada, coordinator of the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI) in Guerrero. They talk about the hydroelectric dam La Parota, collective organising against this infrastructure project, and the conflicts and divisions it caused among communities around issues of land ownership and displacement of settlements located at the Papagayo river basin. The La Parota hydroelectric project is one of the largest hydroelectric projects planned in the hemisphere. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio production: Gemaly Padua Uscanga

Defending the Chimalapas Against Resource Extractivism and Energy Colonialism

Our host Rita Valencia converses with Josefa Contreras, Angpon or Zoque activist and Indigenous thinker from the Chimalapas – a dense forest region in the southwest of the state of Oaxaca in Mexico – whose intellectual inquiries are linked to the organisational processes of territorial defence. They talk about the role of cultural identity, resource extractivism and energy colonialism in the context of climate collapse, and infrastructure that promotes the way of being and inhabiting of the Zoque people. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio production: Gemaly Padua Uscanga

The Mayan Train: Extractivist Development, Militarisation and Division

Host Gemaly Padua Uscanga interviews Pedro Uc Be, poet, writer, philosopher and member of the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory Múuch’ Xíinbal. They discuss the Tren Maya infrastructure project – a 1,525-kilometre railway intended to boost Mexico’s tourism industry – and its social and environmental impacts on the lives of the Indigenous peoples residing in the Yucatán Peninsula. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio production: Gemaly Padua Uscanga

Protecting the Río Verde River from the Paso de la Reina Hydroelectric Dam

Susanne Hofmann talks to Leonor Díaz Santos, a member of the Council of United Peoples in Defense of the Río Verde river (COPUDEVER), located in Oaxaca’s coastal region. Díaz Santos is Afro-Mixteca and defender of her territory, the river and the water. They discuss the suspected impacts of this hydroelectric project and the resistance that Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples undertook against it. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio Production: Susanne Hofmann

The Violent Technologies of ‘Green’ Infrastructures

Rita Valencia talks to Alexander Dunlap, researcher at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Development and the Environment, about the violent technologies of extraction required for the ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ energy transition currently promoted by global North countries as a solution to climate change. They discuss the European Green Deal, infrastructural colonization of territories and common goods in the global South and the military-police configurations that protect critical infrastructures, but also organised resistance against Green Capitalism and its damaging consequences. Podcast in English.
Audio Production: Susanne Hofmann

Histories of Dispossession and Extractivism in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

Astrid Paola Chavelas talks to social anthropologist Alejandro Castaneira (Autonomous University of Mexico, Iztapalapa) about the trajectory of the different socio-environmental conflicts caused by infrastructure projects planned and/or already implemented in the Isthmus, based on his long-term work on and with the Indigenous peoples of the region. He also addresses the hopes he has for the movements and communities that defend their land and territories in this historic moment. Podcast in Spanish.
Audio Production: Gemaly Padua Uscanga

The Construction of the Interoceanic Transport Corridor and its Conflicts

Our host Astrid Paola Chavelas talks to Mario Castillo Quintero, member of the Assembly of Peoples of the Isthmus in Defence of Land and Territory (APIIDTT). They discuss the advancement of the Interoceanic Transport Corridor in the southern region of the Isthmus and the conflicts that have emerged so far between different groups of the population. They address the role of political parties and state security forces in the implementation of large-scale infrastructures, as well as the emerging green economies in Mexico and their consequences on indigenous peoples, their territories and modes of living. This podcast is in Spanish.
Audio Production: Gemaly Padua Uscanga