Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T08:17:56.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religion and Resistance to Extraction in Rural Peru: Is the Catholic Church Following the People?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Javier Arellano-Yanguas
Javier Arellano-Yanguas*
Affiliation:
University of Deusto
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article analyzes the Catholic Church's involvement in social conflicts resulting from resource extraction activities in Peru. The nature and degree of the Catholic Church's involvement vary greatly according to the type of conflict and the diversity of standpoints of the Church at the local level. The article focuses on three distinctive, widely known conflicts against the expansion of extractive activities. It shows that the importance conventionally given to the role of particular religious figures, their adherence to progressive ideologies, and the defense of the Church's strategic interests do not fully encompass the complexity of local processes. In contrast, the article contends that the Church's institutional embeddedness in local networks is the most influential factor in the involvement of Catholic organizations in anti-mining conflicts. Embeddedness coincides with a spirituality that prioritizes local people's agency, whereby the priests and Church organizations accompany and follow the initiatives of local communities instead of taking a leading role. This does not mean that the Church takes a passive stance in these conflicts. Priests and other pastoral agents have incorporated environmental and human rights discourses into an explicit religious framework that amplifies the social space of the Church and provides legitimacy for mobilizations. In parallel, locally generated doctrinal frameworks permeate the official discourse of the Catholic Church, reinforcing the position of those committed to the defense of local demands.

Resumo

Resumo

Este artículo analiza la participación de la Iglesia Católica en conflictos sociales relacionados con las industrias extractivas en Perú. El trabajo relativiza los análisis convencionales centrados en el papel de algunas personas, su adhesión a ideologías progresistas y la defensa intereses eclesiales estratégicos no recogen suficientemente la complejidad de los procesos locales. Alternativamente, el trabajo sostiene que la inserción de la Iglesia en redes y procesos locales es el factor más influyente para entender la participación de grupos católicos en conflictos que cuestionan la actividad minera. Esa inserción coincide con una espiritualidad que promueve el protagonismo de la población local. Sin embargo, la Iglesia no es pasiva; sacerdotes y otros agentes pastorales han incorporado en un marco religioso reivindicaciones ambientales y la defensa de los derechos humanos. Esos marcos doctrinales generados localmente acaban impregnando el discurso oficial de la Iglesia, reforzando la posición de los grupos locales.

Type
Part 1: Social Movements and Participatory Democracy
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 49 , Issue S1: Special Issue: Lived Religion and Lived Citizenship in Latin America's Zones of Crisis , 2014 , pp. 61 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the University of Texas Press

References

Adriance, Madeleine 1991 “Agents of Change: The Roles of Priests, Sisters, and Lay Workers in the Grassroots Catholic Church in Brazil.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30 (3): 292–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arellano-Yanguas, Javier 2011a “Aggravating the Resource Curse: Decentralisation, Mining and Conflict in Peru.” Journal of Development Studies 47 (4): 617–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arellano-Yanguas, Javier 2011b ¿Minería sin fronteras? Conflicto y desarrollo en regiones mineras de Perú. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos y Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.Google Scholar
Bebbington, Anthony, and Bury, Jeffrey T. 2009 “Institutional Challenges for Mining and Sustainability in Peru.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (41): 17296–17301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bebbington, Anthony, Connarty, Michael, Coxshall, Wendy, O'Shaughnessy, Hugh, and Williams, Mark 2007 Mining and Development in Peru: With Special Reference to the Rio Blanco Project, Piura. London: Peru Support Group.Google Scholar
Bender, Courtney 2010 The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boff, Leonardo 1996 Ecología: Grito de la tierra, grito de los pobres. Madrid: Trotta.Google Scholar
Cleary, Edward L. 2004 “New Voice in Religion and Politics in Bolivia and Peru.” In Resurgent Voices in Latin America: Indigenous Peoples, Political Mobilization, and Religious Change, edited by Cleary, Edward L. and Steigenga, Timothy J., 43–64. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
El Comercio 2008 “Un general y cerca de cien efectivos de la Policía Nacional continúan secuestrados en Moquegua.” El Comercio, June 16, 1–3.Google Scholar
Comisión Especial de Investigación 2009 “Informe final de la Comisión Especial para investigar y analizar los sucesos de Bagua.” December 2009, Lima. http://servindi.org/pdf/Informe_final_de_la_commision_especial_sucesos_de_agua.pdf.Google Scholar
Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano 2007 “V Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano y del Caribe: Documento conclusivo.” Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM). http://www.celam.org/aparecida.php.Google Scholar
Defensoría del Pueblo 2012 Reporte de conflictos sociales, no. 105. Lima: Defensoría del Pueblo. http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/modules/Downloads/conflictos/2012/Reporte-M.-de-Conflictos-Sociales-N–105-Noviembre—2012.pdf.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1971 Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas. Lima: Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones.Google Scholar
Holden, William N., and Jacobson, R. Daniel 2007 “Ecclesial Opposition to Mining on Mindanao: Neoliberalism Encounters the Church of the Poor in the Land of Promise.” Worldviews: Environment Culture Religion 11 (2): 155–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holden, William N., and Jacobson, R. Daniel 2009 “Ecclesial Opposition to Nonferrous Mining in Guatemala: Neoliberalism Meets the Church of the Poor in a Shattered Society.” Canadian Geographer 53 (2): 145–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
INEI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática) 2010 Análisis etnosociodemográfico de las comunidades nativas de la Amazonia, 1993 y 2007. Lima: INEI.Google Scholar
Levine, Daniel H. 2006 “Religious Transformations and the Language of Rights in Latin America.” Taiwan Journal of Democracy 2 (2): 117–141.Google Scholar
Levine, Daniel H., and Mainwaring, Scott 1989 “Religion and Popular Protest in Latin America: Contrasting Experiences.” In Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements, edited by Eckstein, S., 203–240. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Moltmann, Jürgen 1985 God in Creation: An Ecological Doctrine of Creation; The Gifford Lectures, 1984-1985. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Norget, Kristin 1997 “The Politics of Liberation: The Popular Church, Indigenous Theology, and Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca, Mexico.” Latin American Perspectives 24 (5): 96–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norget, Kristin 2012 “Surviving Conservation: La Madre Tierra and Indigenous Moral Ecologies in Oaxaca, Mexico.” In Nature, Science and Religion: Intersections Shaping Society and the Environment, edited by Tucker, Catherine M., 85–106. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press.Google Scholar
Panfichi, Aldo 2009 “Conflictos sociales en el Perú, 2004-2009: Causas, características y posibilidades.” In “Report for the Mining Convention,” unpublished manuscript, Lima, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.Google Scholar
Paredes, Maritza 2008 “El caso de Tambogrande.” In Defendiendo derechos y promoviendo cambios: El Estado, las empresas extractivas y las comunidades locales en el Perú, edited by Scurrah, Martin, 269–300. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Peña, Milagros 1994 “Liberation Theology in Peru: An Analysis of the Role of Intellectuals in Social Movements.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 33 (1): 34–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revesz, Bruno 2009a “Disputas por la legalidad, los derechos de propiedad y el futuro agrícola o minero de la sierra de Piura: El caso Majaz.” In Minería y conflicto social, edited by Echave, J. de, Diez, A., Huber, L., Revesz, B., Ricard, X. and Tanaka, M. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Revesz, Bruno 2009b “Tambogrande: De la defensa del agro a la defensa del derecho a decidir.” In Minería y conflicto social, edited by de Echave A. Diez, José, Huber, L., Revesz, B., Ricard, X., and Tanaka, M., 8–54. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1998 Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scurrah, Martin, Lingan, Jeannet, and Pizarro, Rosa 2008 “El caso de La Oroya.” In Defendiendo derechos y promoviendo cambios: El Estado, las empresas extractivas y las comunidades locales en el Perú, edited by Scurrah, Martin, 69–136. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Starn, Orin 1999 Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Theije, Marjo de 2006 “Local Protest and Transnational Catholicism in Brazil.” Focaal 2006 (47): 77–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trejo, Guillermo 2009 “Religious Competition and Ethnic Mobilization in Latin America: Why the Catholic Church Promotes Indigenous Movements in Mexico.” American Political Science Review 103 (3): 323–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troeltsch, Ernst 1931 The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, vol. 1. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.Google Scholar