This chapter examines the role of transnational activism for corporate accountability in post-1996 Guatemala. It argues that, in a country marked by extensive neoliberal economic experiments, endemic corruption, pervasive racism against Indigenous populations, and violence against anti-extractivist campaigners, transnational cooperation between Guatemalan and Western activists, NGOs, and donors was crucial for strengthening local struggles against the development of mining operations and other extractivist projects. Nevertheless, Western support for accountability campaigns has often been framed within a liberal lexicon of rights that has dominated global affairs since the mid-1970s that has limited the capacity of Guatemalan Indigenous communities to assert a politics of alternative, non-liberal and non-Western autonomy. Furthermore, in their pursuit of Western public support for Indigenous demands, NGOs from the Global North often constructed communication strategies that oversimplified and depoliticised not only the economic conflicts unfolding in Guatemala, but also Indigenous thought, by employing simplistic narratives borrowed from Western blockbusters and bestsellers.

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The Values and Limitations of Transnational Activism for Corporate Accountability in Post-Civil War Guatemala

  • Raluca Grosescu

摘要

This chapter examines the role of transnational activism for corporate accountability in post-1996 Guatemala. It argues that, in a country marked by extensive neoliberal economic experiments, endemic corruption, pervasive racism against Indigenous populations, and violence against anti-extractivist campaigners, transnational cooperation between Guatemalan and Western activists, NGOs, and donors was crucial for strengthening local struggles against the development of mining operations and other extractivist projects. Nevertheless, Western support for accountability campaigns has often been framed within a liberal lexicon of rights that has dominated global affairs since the mid-1970s that has limited the capacity of Guatemalan Indigenous communities to assert a politics of alternative, non-liberal and non-Western autonomy. Furthermore, in their pursuit of Western public support for Indigenous demands, NGOs from the Global North often constructed communication strategies that oversimplified and depoliticised not only the economic conflicts unfolding in Guatemala, but also Indigenous thought, by employing simplistic narratives borrowed from Western blockbusters and bestsellers.