Indigenous mobilization and territorial ordering in the Amazon

Abstract

The paper examines the creation of the district of Megantoni, home to vast reserves of natural gas currently exploited by the Camisea project, as an example of recent territorial ordering in Peru. We focus on the political conditions that enable communities to renegotiate potential advantages from existing extractive projects. We emphasize the politicization of collective identities as central for advancing the claims of diverse ethnic groups, while drawing attention to the conflation of contextual factors that made the mobilization of Indigenous communities for the creation of their own district more likely. These factors are related to Camisea's sustainable energy discourse, domestic security threats linked to political violence and drug-trafficking, and a political discourse based on social inclusion. The paper demonstrates the varied uses of territorial ordering outside resistance in the context of resource extraction. It also shows that Indigenous identity can be politicized for cooperation among diverse ethnic groups, and in this way, advance their territorial project and secure access to benefits from existing projects.