Carmelo Ruiz: Latin American political ecology according to the Progresistas Bolivarianos

http://entitleblog.org/2015/10/13/latin-american-political-ecology-according-to-the-progresistas-bolivarianos/

The region’s progressive governments are hardening their positions in favour of mining and oil extraction and against civil society environmental organizations and other critics of extractivism.

Latin American Progressive Encounter, Quito, 28-30 September 2015. Source: elapecuador.com.

The recent threats against non-governmental society organizations (NGOs) made by the avowedly progressive and environmentally-minded governments of Ecuador and Bolivia have caused commotion and discussion among academics and activists in both North and South. Last August, Bolivian vice president Alvaro García-Linera, a highly esteemed Marxist intellectual, singled out four NGOs for retaliation if they continued their “political work”. A number of high-profile international intellectuals called on García-Linera to rethink his stance.

But rather than reconsidering, the region’s progressive governments are hardening their positions, judging from the speeches delivered at the second Latin American Progressive Encounter (ELAP 2015) hosted by the Ecuadorian government in the capital city of Quito in September 28-30. The event, which had the participation of tens of political parties and movements from Latin America and Europe, featured keynote addresses by García-Linera and Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, precisely the two public figures that have led the charge against Latin American NGOs from the left.