Presentation short abstract

Drawing on a renewed dependency theory perspective, we show that green transitions in Latin America’s extractive regions are shaped as much by domestic elite strategie as by North–South relations of antagonistic cooperation, dynamics often missed in green colonialism debates.

Presentation long abstract

Despite the growing critiques that frame the energy transition as a new form of green colonialism, most accounts still overlook how transitions unfold in concrete territories. In the Global South, energy transformations are not linear processes imposed from the North but messy, negotiated and territorialised arenas where actors with unequal power intersect. To grasp these dynamics, we draw on a renewed dependency perspective that foregrounds the role of domestic elites and corporate conglomerates, as well as the antagonistic cooperation between Northern and Southern capital that jointly shape 'dependent modernization'.

Based on comparative fieldwork, we analyse these processes in two emblematic extractive regions of Latin America. In Chile's Atacama desert, we observe an infrastructure scramble driven not only by global capital but also by powerful domestic conglomerates, which seek to decarbonize mining operations, expand desalination capacity and position the region as a renewable-energy hub. In Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, the tourism industry faces its own socio-ecological limits and responds through further commodification, including the industrialization of sargassum, the installation of desalination plants by international resorts and the rapid expansion of solar energy provision by transnational firms.

Taken together, the cases show that transitions are shaped by speculative interconnections across energy, water and logistics infrastructures; and by domestic corporate actors whose influence often rivals or exceeds that of their Northern counterparts. These dynamics remain largely absent from mainstream political ecology and energy-colonialism frameworks, which privilege North–South domination while overlooking domestic corporate power, infrastructural speculation and the class relations that organize territorial governance.