Depoliticized and Repoliticized Minerals in Latin America

Abstract

Control over mineral wealth has become a highly politicized issue in Latin America, and the region-wide leftwards political shift of the 2000s has profoundly changed mineral policies. After the neoliberal development model of free markets, the state has recently taken a center stage position again, at least with regard to oil, gas, and metallic minerals. This article studies the nature and implications of the shift from neoliberal to post-neoliberal mineral policies in Latin America, using a political economy angle. It analyzes the policies and politics of neoliberal regimes in the 1980s and 1990s, the subsequent booming markets and rising Chinese influences, and the new mineral policies of some Leftist governments. Finally, it discusses political conflicts related to these new policies.