WHAT IS THE RESEARCH ABOUT
VDGSEGUR (Spanish acronym for Gender Violence and Security) explores the ways in which dynamics of organised crime and securitised local resource conflicts together impact on the insecurity and violence that women experience in the interoceanic industrial corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Focusing on the protection of women from the risk of becoming a victim of violent crime, VDGSEGUR examines the co-production of security through state, corporate and community actors. It scrutinises how different community actors respond to gendered forms of insecurity, paying particular attention to citizen-led security efforts, or “security from below”.
METHODS
The research methods were severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The study’s initial design involved ethnographic observation of policy meetings, campaign events and community security efforts, as well as focus group workshops to co-construct local security agendas. Those approaches had largely to be dropped to protect research assistants and participants. The qualitative study now largely draws on semi-structured interviews (conducted remotely if possible) with community, state and corporate actors.
An intersectional analysis, will allow conclusions regarding sustainable security measures and crime prevention in the Isthmus corridor, broken down according the factors of race, ethnicity and class. The findings will allow insights into what specific measures could diminish women’s vulnerability and prevent re-victimisation, as well as reveal possible gaps in victim services, helping to improve them in the future.
QUESTIONS
BACKGROUND
The Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is one of the major strategic infrastructure initiatives of the current Mexican government, along with the Mayan Train, the Dos Bocas refinery and the Santa Lucía airport.
The Interoceanic Corridor project, announced during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidential campaign, has been promoted as a multimodal road and rail transportation corridor that will link the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean.
It is projected as a viable alternative to the Panama Canal, for the benefit of global trade, with which it is intended to interconnect the circulation of goods and thus stimulate the local economy.
The Interoceanic Corridor includes at least three central components: 1. the modernization and expansion of the ports of Coatzacoalcos in the Gulf and Salina Cruz in the Pacific; 2. the development of a new (super)highway and 3. the improvement of the rail connection between the two; and the construction of industrial parks along the route.
Up to 10 industrial estates (sometimes called ‘development poles’ or ‘welfare poles’) are planned to receive industries from the agro-industrial, electronics-electrical, metal-mechanical, plastic, paper, textile and clothing sectors, among others.
Through the granting of tax incentives, an attempt is made to promote the arrival of private investment in the region. The federal government’s goal is to invest 10,000 million pesos in the Interoceanic Corridor project in 2022. This is an increase of over 140 percent compared to 2021.
In the official discourse, the Program for the Development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec will generate jobs and decent living conditions to attract and halt those fleeing poverty. In the long term, urban infrastructure will be built and educational services, housing, and infrastructure for research and technological development will be provided.
The Interoceanic Corridor implies expected impacts in 79 municipalities in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. Almost 2.3 million people live in the area, of which more than half a million are indigenous from 12 peoples.
The Interoceanic Corridor project strongly resembles previous national infrastructure projects such as: the Puebla Panama Plan announced by President Vicente Fox in 2001; the 1996 Program for the Integral Development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec during Ernesto Zedillo’s administration. The Alpha-Omega Project presented in 1978 under the administration of President José López Portillo.
While there are differences in the specifics of the implementation of those projects, it is clear that they all share the impetus to establish capitalist development in the Isthmus, a region where various forms of collective landholding schemes persist, given its valuable geopolitical and strategic position.
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
What are the best practices when planning infrastructure projects? How to include local communities and consider benefits for them from the start? What security impacts may emerge in infrastructure projects in the global South? How to ensure that the perspectives, needs and visions of women and ethnic minorities are taken into account?
This website is part of the research project “Gender Violence and Security in the Interoceanic Industrial Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec: A Critical Examination of Policies and Practices”, and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 844176.
