Conflictos ambientales en Centroamérica y las Antillas: un rápido toxic tour

Abstract

In political ecology there is need for more empirical work on the large world resistance movement born from the environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous. The environmental conflicts collected in the Environmental Justice Atlas (www.ejatlas.org), 3,300 in October 2020 include about 130 from Mexico and 120 from Central America and the Caribbean, each one with a data sheet of 5 to 6 pages. This article puts Mexico aside because it is well covered in this issue of Ecología Política. I focus on Central America and the Caribbean briefly analyzing about twenty conflicts. Many of them are failures in environmental justice but some are encouragingly successful: for instance, Pacific Rim in El Salvador; Cerro Blanco in Guatemala and El Salvador; Crucitas in Costa Rica, and the Canal of Nicaragua that seemingly has been stopped. Also cases against Cemex in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the maroon people of Cockpit Country in Jamaica against bauxite mining, and Vieques in Puerto Rio against militarization. In the Conclusion I list some characteristics of the political ecology of the region.