Pluralismo territorial e identidades en el conflicto minero en la cordillera del Cóndor

The Mirador mining project does not expand on ‘empty lands’, but develops in a complex context of actors and social groups that have forged diverse territorialities over time. The arrival of the Mirador project introduced abrupt transformations and resulted in an upsurge of territorial conflicts. In order to analyse the multiplicity of territorialities and identities that are entangled in these conflicts, this chapter takes territorial pluralism and identity politics as theoretical vantage points. We show that this conflictivity emerges due to the very distinct ways of relating to non-human nature and different valuation, appropriation, and legitimization logics and practices of the involved actors. We furthermore show how identities are closely linked to the different territorialities at stake, and how identity politics have an important role in framing demands and creating subjects within territorial conflicts. We argue that both territorialities and identities are not fixed, but are constantly produced in the interactions between the state, the company and the civil society. We moreover maintain that it is crucial to take a historial approach to the power relations, the inequalities and the diversity of subjectivities that are part of the conflict. We conclude by stating that the recognition of the differences in territorial ontologies and the structural inequalities that shape the interactions between the actors is the very first step towards a better understanding of the territorial conflicts around the Mirador project.