Oportunidades desiguales: empresas y Estado en conflictos sobre la minería en Chile

Abstract

This article examines significant variations between two conflicts over mining in Chileregarding the degree, the scale and the outcomes of contention: the conflicts in Chanaralwhere the public company Codelco operates and in the Huasco Valley (Pascua Lama) wherea transnational company is in charge. While the former suffers widespread contaminationcaused by mining activities, opposition against mining remains low and isolated and the statebarely responds to local claims. In contrast, the mining project of Pascua Lama motivatedlarge-scale protests, reached national and international support and managed that stateagencies partly acted on behalf of local claims. Three factors explain these differences: First,the local economic context, i.e. the dependency of a given place on the mining industry affectsthe degree and shape of contention; second, the presence of the public company, which bothreduces the overall disposition to contest its activities as well as the opportunities to ‘scaleup’contention. Moreover, state authorities tend to protect public companies that providesignificant fiscal incomes; Lastly, the origin of the company (national – transnational) shapesthe scale as well as the outcomes of contention over mining.