Analyzing the Spill-over Matrix of Extractivism: From Para-legality, Separation and Violence to Integral Health in the Ecuadorian Íntag

Abstract

On 3rd March 2015, Eduardo Gudynas held a talk at FLACSO, Ecuador, titled “Los efectos derrame de los extractivismos: energía, consumo, territorio y resistencias” (“Spill-over effects of extractivisms: energy, consumption, territory and resistances”) at a one-day conference on energy matrices in Latin America and possible shifts. In his presentation, which I was kindly granted access to report and comment on, he deduced in detail the effects on several sectors of societies of persistent, and partly reinforced, heavy dependence on natural resources, as in countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico and, of course, Venezuela (whose oil exports account for 96% of its export earnings, thus virtually exporting nothing else). It should be stressed that these mechanisms reside not only in the foundations of climate change, but also inherently in global capitalism and warfare – altering them would be equal to improving the current state of the planet.