Abstract
This chapter analyses racializing and environmental discourses in producing belonging and displacement in Nicaragua’s indigenous territories from the perspective of non-indigenous peasants. I suggest that these discourses work to construct a seemingly homogeneous non-indigenous, or mestizo, category that conceals crucial intragroup differences in power, spatialities, and environmental behaviour. Hence, they authorize the removal of mestizo peasants through the saneamiento territorial (‘territorial cleansing’) policy, while ignoring broader political-economic drivers that territorialize space in indigenous territories. Although envisioned as an emancipatory mechanism to improve indigenous territorial security, saneamiento is unlikely to resolve territorial conflicts in the long term.
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Sylvander, N. (2021). ‘They Destroy Everything:’ Racialising Discourses, Environmental Conservation Narratives, and Territorial Belonging in Nicaragua’s Bosawas Biosphere Reserve. In: McCall, M.K., Boni Noguez, A., Napoletano, B., Rico-Rodríguez, T. (eds) Territorialising Space in Latin America. The Latin American Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82222-4_15
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