Jimena Martinez
| MA in Southeast Asian Studies, El Colegio de México (2011). Research interests include land and agrarian reforms, agrarian change and rural social movements; environmental problematics related to agrarian change, climate change and adaptation. Field-work experience in Southeast Asia and Latin America. E-mail: jimenamartinez@colmex.mx |
Research on Land-grabbing:
Windmills: The Face of Dispossession (with Jose Llaguno)
In recent years the development of renewable energy projects in Mexico has been widely accepted. During the last 15 years a wind farm mega project located in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, has erected more than 430 windmills on communal and ejido lands through lease contracts that have changed agricultural practices in the communities involved. Lately, the construction and planning of new wind farms in the area has led to growing resistance as environmental, agrarian and social effects become more evident and malicious political practices deep rooted. The proposed research paper will trace the agrarian change and its social consequences within the communities where windmills have been working for several years. This research is also aimed to deconstruct the discourse that legitimize the development of wind farms in the region and to analyze the political structures and the enactment of new regulations that enable and warrant the implementation of wind farms; finally documenting past experiences that can reinforce current strategies of resistance arising against the construction of new wind farms in the area.
