DisasterExtractivism
ThoughtStorms Wiki
Since 2019, two interlocking forces have swept across LatinAmerica sowing conflict and crisis. Covid19 has ravaged the continent, pummeled local economies, and driven communities to shelter in place. In response to the resulting health catastrophe and economic recession, Latin American governments of various political leanings have turned to socio-ecologically degrading extractive development as the solution. Under the banner of a “state of emergency,” countries across the political spectrum have deemed mining, oil, and gas extraction “essential” activities and community resistance a “security threat.” Just as the pandemic exacerbates preexisting inequities, the extractive solution in these countries inflames ongoing socio-environmental conflict (Earthworks et al., 2020). In this paper we trace the political economic and discursive relations that have propelled deepening extractivism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, Ecuador, and Honduras.
Naomi Klein’s (2007) work on “disaster capitalism” illustrates how powerful political economic interests instrumentalized moments of crisis from natural disasters to manufactured coups to impose neoliberal policies and crush dissent through “shock therapies.” We argue that the current COVID-19 pandemic has presented extractive corporate elites and Latin American governments with the perfect crisis to consolidate and deepen extractive development. In short, this new strain of neoliberal disaster capitalism has taken on the distinctive form of disaster extractivism.
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