Natural Resources, Extraction and Indigenous Rights in Latin America

Marcela Torres Wong has written a tour de force on the extractive conflicts in Latin America and the rights of indigenous peoples, specifically in the countries of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. Her methodological diversity and her on the ground filed techniques serve not only to demystify our previous understandings of indigenous peoples rights and their struggles to survive in a global political economy, but she also shines light on and captures the geo-political realities of Green Criminology and sustainability in the 21st century. - Gregg Barak, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Eastern Michigan University, USA Does the implementation of the right to prior consultation granted by ILO Convention 169 protect indigenous territories from ecologically controversial extractive industries? This is the leading question put by Marcela Torres Wong in this disruptive book that demystifies and shed new light on the issue. Using case studies she empirically demonstrates that the legalization of prior consultation has not been the most adequate way to achieve the safeguard of indigenous peoples and that this legal mechanism even enables the state to further extractive projects. In light of green criminology studies Torres Wong explains the tension between pro-extractivist and anti-extractivist indigenous movements as a consequence of the industrialized exploitation of natural resources. This is a must read for scholars, politicians and civil society interested in a fair relationship between global economic interests, natural resources and human rights of indigenous people. - Maria Laura Boehm. DAAD Long Term Guest Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, and Department of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina Over the last two decades, green criminologists have endeauvored to expose the ways in which state actors permit or facilitate environmental harm by enabling corporate access to natural resources . In this thoroughly researched and beautifully insightful book, Marcela Torres Wong illuminates the increasing conflict surrounding indigenous lands and extractive industry in Latin America. Her remarkably nuanced account reveals why prior consultation is not a mechanism for protecting indigenous lands from the impacts of extraction. Readers will be amazed and surprised by Wong's description of how the political and economic management of natural resources by governments and multinational corporations influences the implementation of indigenous rights, while reshaping indigenous peoples' goals. - Avi Brisman, Associate Professor, School of Justice Studies, College of Justice and Safety, Eastern Kentucky University, USA Marcela Torres-Wong offers an intriguing, well-developed and sophisticated, in-depth examination of Indigenous people's activism against extractive industries in Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico. Using a masterful combination of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, process tracing and quantitative data analysis, Torres-Wong sheds light on the myriad clever and knowledgeable strategies used by Indigenous activists against a broad range of oil and mining companies. This book will be of interest to activists, policy-makers and scholars of social movements and comparative politics, as it carefully lifts the veil surrounding the often unexplored scholarly territory of studies of Indigenous people as activists against extractive industries in Latin America. - Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE)