Proposal of Chinese investments in mapuche territory: Resistances to metallic mining in Loncopue

Abstract

The existence of socio-environmental conflicts in Argentina has gained increasing visibility in public opinion and in the media. Those conflicts caused by the potential installation of largescale mining projects, mainly metalliferous, stand out for their quantity and productivity. This paper is expected to advance in the characterization of these conflictive processes, based on the analysis of one of the last conflicts generated in Argentina, in the Loncopue locality, Neuquen province, where a Chinese company tried to carry out a mining exploration in Mapuche's territory. Through an ethnographic work with the communities affected by the conflict, the research has how central objective to give account of the heterogeneous network of relationships that gave rise to the mining project rejection, which was materialized in the realization of a "referendum" (popular consultation). In less proportion, it also seeks to investigate the strategies that Chinese companies deploy in the territory to carry out their investments. This work shows that these conflicts push social changes in small communities. These changes impact on the environmental institutionality and indigenous communities rights.