Natural resources extraction and politics in Guyana

Abstract

The current debate on natural resources extraction in the post-neoliberal era in Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on the “new” extractivism as a development model or as an imperialist framework. The state is ascribed a “developmentalist” role or the function to facilitate the exploitation of natural resources by extractive capital from imperial states. The Guyana case adds a new dimension to this debate: in the early 2000s the state degenerated into a “criminalized authoritarian state” the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean. This state coincided with the emergence of the gold mining sector as the dominant segment of the Guyana-economy. The small-scale gold mining sub-sector came to control gold mining, as the only large-scale gold mine the Canadian-owned Omai Gold Mines Ltd., ceased operation. The conditions were created for the state to exercise greater leverage over the small-scale gold mining sector through its laws and incentives programs, further opening the door to corruption and criminal activity. A critical development approach is employed to investigate the relationship between natural resources extraction and politics as the state degenerated into a criminal enterprise. The purpose is to begin the discussion on this anomalous aspect of the state in the post-neoliberal period.