Abstract
ABSTRACTOn November 2014, the first Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) consultation was called for the Eólica del Sur wind project in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico. Lasting eight months, the consultation was responding not only to the UN International Labor Organization’s (ILO) convention 169 that Mexico signed in 1990 but also to widespread uprisings against wind energy projects in the region. This article begins with an FPIC literature review, followed by sections examining the consultation in Juchitán, its spatial layout, the actors involved and its repressive atmosphere. The subsequent section analyzes the discursive techniques deployed by the FPIC technical committee (TC) which—despite unanswered questions and popular opposition to the wind energy project—granted project approval on 30 June 2015. The final section concludes that the FPIC consultation undermines Indigenous autonomy and serves as a counter-insurrectionary device, reinforcing a context of substantial political and economic asymmetry between state, corporate and elite interest and Indigenous fishermen and farmers. The FPIC consultation in Juchitán reinforced state power and simultaneously serves as a marketing platform for development projects, thereby creating an illusion of real dialogue, negotiation and, by extension, democratic decision making. Despite efforts to have the wind project approved, resistance groups’ temporarily halted construction.
Highlights
O [I]n the consultation there has been several people who say “Thank you COCEI, thank you city hall, thank you mayor and his administration
The consultation lasted eight months until 30 June 2015 and responded to the United Nations International Labor Organization’s (ILO) convention 169 signed by Mexico in 1990, and, as Ray points out above, to the widespread revolt against wind energy projects slated for construction on the Laguna (Figures 1 and 2)
The FPIC consultation in Juchitán failed to provide genuinely free, non-coercive information prior to approving the project and did not provide the conditions to allow for informed consent
Summary
O [I]n the consultation there has been several people who say “Thank you COCEI, thank you city hall, thank you mayor and his administration. On November 2014, the first Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) consultation was called for the Eólica del Sur wind project in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico.
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