Proyectos de Muerte: Energy justice conflicts on Mexico’s unconventional gas frontier

Abstract

In 2013, Mexico’s energy law was fundamentally changed, facilitating increased private and foreign investment into the Mexican energy industry. As a part of this energy reform, the Mexican Government has also started to promote unconventional gas extraction across the north-east of Mexico, including a private sector tendered process that commenced in early 2018. These changes have been met with opposition from rural social movements, looking to defend their territory and livelihoods against megaprojects. As a part of these initiatives, unconventional gas projects have been dubbed as being part of Los Proyectos de Muerte, a term coined by rural activists to critique the environmental and social impacts of gas pipelines, large-scale extraction projects, and hydroelectric dam megaprojects across Mexico. Death (Muerte) referring to impacts on: human health, the more-than-human, and the cosmological worlds of different rural communities. In this paper, we critically examine the notion of unconventional gas expansion in Mexico as being Proyectos de Muerte. focusing on justice concerns that have emerged. To inform this analysis, we draw upon interviews with organisations associated with unconventional gas developments and communities potentially affected by these projects, as well as private consultants, advocates and activists.