Abstract

GRANOVSKY-LARSEN, Simon. “The Situation Will Most Likely Turn Ugly”: Corporate Counter-Insurgency and Sexual Violence at a Canadian-Owned Mine in Guatemala. Norteamérica [online]. 2023, vol.18, n.1, pp.319-354.  Epub Jan 12, 2024. ISSN 2448-7228.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cisan.24487228e.2023.1.621.

This paper offers a window into the terrain of corporate influence over violence in the mining industry. The research draws on over 300 pages of internal communications and other corporate documents, which were produced by Vancouver-based Skye Resources and released publicly as an affidavit in a civil court case in Ontario, Canada. The documents demonstrate the roles of mining company executives and their collaborators in coordinating events that led to the gang rape of eleven Maya Q’eqchi’ women in Guatemala during a 2007 land eviction. Analyzing the documents through a framework of corporate counter-insurgency (co-COIN), the paper explores the importance of international consultants and local elite networks in co-COIN campaigns. The case study explored in this paper contributes to the theorization of public-private repressive forces within co-COIN. The research also offers a visual tool to map actors in other instances of mining violence, which is intended for use by both academic researchers and antimining social movements.

Keywords : Corporate counter-insurgency; mining; elites; corporate social responsibility; sexual violence.