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Paper short abstract:

This research investigates mining corporations and hydroelectric dam impacts in late 20th century Central America. Understanding the origins and development of extractivist industries benefits scholars seeking to unravel current issues of “environmental migrants“ and pan-indigenous activism.

Paper long abstract:

After achieving independence from Spain, then separating from Mexico in the first quarter of the 19th century, Central America was slow to modernize and even slower to industrialize in what has been termed a “long middle period”. By the early 20th century, the nations of middle America began to adopt the modern technology of hydroelectric power with the purpose of producing electricity. While, initially, the construction of dams benefited local communities and were relatively small in size and output, by the late 20th century multiple national governments actively encouraged foreign investment and welcomed international mining corporations into rural zones that were often remote. These mining corporations required enormous electrical output previously non-existent in the areas determined to contain valuable mineral resources and, thus, large scale dam construction projects ensued, ostensibly in lands populated primarily by Mayan and Ladino subsistence farmers.

This research investigates the environmental impacts of those dam constructions, the aftermath of local population relocation, planned flooding of indigenous lands, and, ultimately, the rise of violence by national governments against their own people and subsequent pan-indigenous activism in response. While there are commonalities across the hemisphere, the local actors and environmental degradation that developed in the region have yet to receive sufficient scholarly attention. A fuller understanding of the impact from the construction of hydroelectric dams and creation of internationally-owned extractivist industries in Central America beginning in the 1980s will benefit interdisciplinary scholars, non-profit aid groups, and NGOs in unraveling 21st-century issues of “environmental migrants“ emigrating from the region.