Hydroelectric Extractivism: Infrastructural Violence and Coloniality in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

This paper argues that in Latin America, renewable energy and mining infrastructures are entangled in a logic of so-called green extractivism that rearticulates coloniality through infrastructural violence. It grounds the analysis in a case study of the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico, where a logic of hydroelectric extractivism entangles small hydropower and mining projects. This co-articulation of extractivist and green transition imperatives reflects a reconfiguration of the Mexican political settlement to make natural resource extraction compatible with, and even necessary to, mitigating climate change. While presented as sustainable development by state and corporate actors, Nahua and Totonac land and environmental defenders resist these projects and call them proyectos de muerte to indicate that they threaten Indigenous lives, livelihoods, and territory. In analyzing this case study, the paper dispels the prevalent assumption that small hydropower plants cause minimal socio-ecological impacts. The findings also highlight the contested role of the state, illustrating that a state's infrastructural power can perpetuate coloniality and infrastructural violence while also enabling political activism to effectively challenge them. The focus on small and sustainable infrastructure contributes to burgeoning research on green extractivism, while the emphasis on power relations challenges much of the current literature on energy and sustainability transitions.