Structures of Bribery and Violence among Multinational Mining Companies in Guatemala

• In Event: 473 - Section on Political Economy of the World-System Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Extraction

Abstract

Corruption, particularly in the forms of bribery and violence, are endemic in the mining industry in Guatemala. Bribery and violence are interchangeable expressions of the impunity and lawlessness that characterizes the relationship between the mining sector and the Guatemalan state. Seeking a deeper understanding of the structural factors underlying corruption among multinational mining companies in Guatemala, this paper advances two arguments: 1) that smaller companies exhibit greater levels of corruption and 2) that environmental governance—particularly the approval of the environmental impact assessment—is a moment of acute vulnerability to bribery and violence for both the state and firm. Drawing from semi-structured interviews and archival data, this paper traces historical patterns of merger, acquisition and spin-off among multinational mining companies in Guatemala since 1997, which exemplify the argument that that junior companies thrive disproportionately in weak political institutional environments. Further, the approval of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) emerges as the phase of mineral production in which firm and state are most vulnerable to the influences of corruption. The approval of the EIA is a high-stakes moment in which minority factions within the state apparatus that seek to better regulate the mining industry can assert some agency. It is also a moment which is symbolically and materially crucial for the company as concern around environmental issues is the most acute concern of civil society vis a vis mining.

Author

• Michael L. Dougherty, Illinois State University