The Wayúu tragedy: death, water and the imperatives of global capitalism

William Avilés

Third World Quarterly, 2019, vol. 40, issue 9, 1750-1766

Abstract: Between 20007 and 2017 approximately 5000 children of the Wayúu tribe in the Guajira state in Colombia died, largely from an inability to gain access to clean water. A severe drought is a proximate factor to this massive loss of life, but the drought concealed a larger historical, political and economic context that was fundamental to this humanitarian crisis. A context dominated by the needs of our present epoch of global capitalism and not simply the consequences of regional corruption or the weakness of the Colombian state. In the case of Guajira, transnational coal mining interests have for decades worked to dispossess indigenous communities from their lands while capturing more of their water resources to facilitate the operation of the largest open-pit mine in the world. This demand for coal, land and water was facilitated by factions of Colombia’s political establishment on a national and regional level that viewed such investments as necessary for development and/or as a source of funding for corruption and political violence.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2019.1613638

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