Beyond anti-neoliberal rhetoric: Extractivist offensive and megaprojects in times of the Fourth Transformation

Abstract

During the first year of the López Obrador government, we have witnessed not only a continuation of the primary export extractionist pattern promoted by the previous governments, but the launching of a renewed extractivist offensive -with benefactor and compensatory nuances-, aimed at expanding the capacities of control and subsumption of the territories and guarantee a stability pact with capital. In this article, we present a characterization of what we understand by the extractive offensive and its updating with the 4T government, starting from: exposing its specific contents in terms of rupture and continuity with the regimes that preceded it; present the critics that have been formulated against the current extractive megaprojects from different sectors of civil society and struggle proceses; and analyze the terms of the state relationship that the government has engaged with the populations affected, through multiple social welfare programs.