Projecting smallholders : roads, the Puebla to Panama plan and land grabbing in the Q'eqchi' lowlands of northern Guatemala
Grandia, Liza
From IIRSA (Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America) through the PPP (Puebla to Panama Plan) and onto Obamaas stimulus plan, governments and banks are co-financing the construction of a new wave infrastructure projects across the western hemisphere to support corporate trade and commerce. Despite hefty academic critique and civil society resistance in the 1980s and 1990s against unsustainable projects like hydroelectric dams and the trans-forest highways, the idea that high modernist infrastructure will ineluctably produce economic growth is experiencing a rebirth among the development planning elite. This paper explores the relationship between such infrastructure development and land grabs in northern Guatemala.
Event: International Conference on Global Land Grabbing
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