Ungovernable? Indigenous Campesino Resistance to Land Grabbing in Guatemala's Polochic Valley

A decade after buying up large swaths of land in Guatemala's Polochic Valley, the Chabil Utzaj sugarcane plantation was forced to cease operations because of local resistance led by indigenous Q'eqchi' campesinos. Situating the conflict within broader trajectories of agrarian and political change brought about by globalization in Guatemala shows how campesino groups have had to navigate a neoliberal political arena that disciplines their discourses and practices and limits their achievements. Campesinos' success to date has rested on partially subverting neoliberal institutions and prescribed practices, thus making new territories coveted by capital ungovernable and therefore less desirable. While most of the lands previously under sugarcane cultivation are currently occupied by organized campesino groups, their control of those lands is very precarious without property titles. The conflict is not yet over, and its long-term impact on livelihoods and trajectories of agrarian change remains uncertain.