Paper short abstract:

In Colombian Guajira, Wayuu people were interested in last 30 years by big extractive projects. More recently, some ‘green' windfarm projects have been installed. Integrating other works on these processes with my own ethnographic experience, I explore the (cosmo)political issues this case raise.

Paper long abstract:

Though not part of the Mesoamerican area, Wayuu people of the Guajira peninsula (Colombia and Venezuela) situate in its surroundings (Circum-Caribbean area). Their 'semi-autonomy' till recent times was strongly undermined in last four decades by the co-occurrence of various processes (growth of State and armed illegal actors' presence, drug trafficking, development of extractive industries managed by transnational companies), among which the Cerrejón coal mine is paramount. In last ten years, in some areas of the Wayuu Colombian resguardo (legally constituted indigenous territory) of Media y Alta Guajira wind farm projects, linked to credit carbon international programs were installed. Although wind farm projects are generally considered an example of green economy, some ethnographic works have studied the many issues and conflicts related to territorial and political representation definition and compensation negotiations which raise from the relationship among Wayuu people and indigenous organization and these projects' management, pointing too at the impact on the different conceptualization of wind and other atmospheric agents (first of all rain) which in Wayuu cosmology hold a special status, which is not only that they have in a 'naturalist' ontology. Looking at the current debates on indigenous cosmopolitics and indigenity, and comparing these studies with my research experience among the Wayuu, the paper explores the significance of this case for these topics, with a particular stress on dimensions (as concepts of territoriality, ethnic identity, forms of political representation, idioms of compensation) which crosscut the issue of ontological hybridization and coexistence.