Abstract
The article shows that the ability of activists to achieve outcomes that they value is fundamentally conditioned by how bureaucracies implement policies and regulations. Relatively minor changes to bureaucratic policies, regulatory enforcement, or judicial oversight – in a context of rule of law and institutional capacity to implement – can generate new opportunities and feedback loops that increase the influence of social movements over extractive sector governance, even when other political and legislative opportunities are closed. In this regard, despite the failure of glacier legislation in Chile, increased bureaucratic and judicial responsiveness enhanced the ability of social activists to attain their goals via direct access to regulatory agencies. In Argentina, the fragmented federal system allowed the passage of legislation to conserve glaciers, yet prevented effective implementation of the law. Resumen: Los dos lados de Pascua Lama: protesta social, respuesta institucional y circuitos de retroalimentacion El articulo muestra que la capacidad de los activistas de alcanzar resultados que valoran esta fundamentalmente condicionado por la manera en la que la burocracia aplica las politicas y las regulaciones. Cambios relativamente menores de politicas burocraticas, aplicacion regulatoria, o la supervision judicial, en un contexto de estado de derecho y capacidad institucional, puede generar nuevas oportunidades y circuitos de retroalimentacion que aumentan la influencia de los movimientos sociales sobre la gobernanza del sector extractivo, incluso cuando se encuentran cerradas otras oportunidades politicas y legislativas. En este sentido, a pesar del fracaso de la legislacion sobre glaciares en Chile, el aumento de la capacidad de respuesta burocratica y judicial mejoro la capacidad de los activistas socio-ambientales sociales para alcanzar sus objetivos a traves del acceso directo a las agencias reguladoras. En Argentina, el sistema federal fragmentado permitio la aprobacion de leyes para conservar los glaciares, pero impidio la implementacion efectiva de la ley.
Highlights
In 2000, Canadian mining company Barrick Gold announced the development of one of the region’s largest gold mines, Pascua Lama, at a deposit that straddled the Chile-Argentina border, located between 3800 and 5200m, and containing an estimated 17 million oz. gold, 560 oz. silver, and 100,000 tonnes of copper (Muñoz, 2016, 35-6)
Over the 18 years, as costs of developing the project ballooned from an estimated initial US$950 million to over US$8 billion, Pascua Lama emerged as an emblematic mining conflict, contested by local, nationallybased, and transnational activist organizations, and subsequently inspiring efforts to develop and pass glacier protection legislation in both countries
The unique characteristics of the Pascua Lama project make it a perfect case to examine the interaction between mobilization and institutions
Summary
In 2000, Canadian mining company Barrick Gold announced the development of one of the region’s largest gold mines, Pascua Lama, at a deposit that straddled the Chile-Argentina border, located between 3800 and 5200m, and containing an estimated 17 million oz. gold, 560 oz. silver, and 100,000 tonnes of copper (Muñoz, 2016, 35-6). Federal judge Sebastián Casanello leveraged a case that had originated in a complaint by the local activist group Jáchal No Se Toca about a cyanide spill at the Veladero mine in 2015 into a broader investigation into the failure to apply the Glacier Law. A subsequent uncontrolled discharge of acid water from the trans-Andean tunnel at the Pascua Lama site, which suggested to activists that the site occupied a protected periglacial environment, enabled Casanello to link environmental pollution with non-implementation of the Glacier Law. As a result, Casanello indicted several bureaucrats, including Ricardo Villalba, the former Director of the glacier agency IANIGLA with failing to uphold the legislation (Mining Press/ Infobae, 2017). The legal uncertainty created by the Glacier Law, despite the failure (and unwillingness) of the federal and provincial governments to implement it, continued to be functional for anti-mining activist strategies
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