Taming the Jungle, Saving the Maya Forest: The Military’s Role in Guatemalan Conservation

This article examines the significance of the role of the military in conservation in Guatemala through an analysis of discourses about the lowlands over time. Historically, Guatemala’s national imaginary of the lowlands has been that of a dangerous jungle (selva) that must be tamed. During the civil war, the military employed this imaginary in its counterinsurgency campaigns, positioning the jungle as a dangerous space with suspect citizens, or potential guerrillas. In the 1980s, international conservation agencies called the region part of the “Maya Forest” in a political project to create an international park system, but they never tamed the jungle. I argue that the transnational conservation alliance, comprised of international NGOs and national elites, continues to evoke the violence of counterinsurgency in the territorial project of conservation. Both counterinsurgency and parks as territorial projects position nature as separate from agriculture. I argue that the use of jungle and forest discourses in successive territorial projects produces a racialized landscape that connects a violent past to a potentially violent present. These two divergent yet articulated signifiers also attach to peoples living in the northern lowlands. In recent years, the jungle discourse has articulated with advocacy for increased militarization of conservation to fight the “war on drugs” in parks. As such, I argue that conservationists and the military are complicit in reproducing social inequalities, often through violent exclusions.

本文通过对长期以来有关低地的论述进行分析，探讨了危地马拉军队在环境保护中所起作用的重要性。从历史上看，危地马拉对低地的国家想象是一片必须被驯服的危险丛林。在内战期间，军队在其反叛乱行动中利用了这种想象，将丛林视为一个存在可疑公民或潜在游击队员的危险空间。20世纪80年代，国际保护机构在一个创建国际公园系统的政治项目中将该地区称为“玛雅森林”的一部分，但他们从未驯服这片丛林。我认为，由国际非政府组织和国家精英组成的跨国保护联盟在其保护的领土项目中继续唤起反叛乱的暴力。反叛乱和公园作为领土项目都将自然与农业分离开来。我认为，在连续的领土项目中对丛林和森林话语的使用产生了一种种族化的景观，将暴力的过去与潜在的暴力现在联系起来。这两个不同但又相互关联的能指也附着在生活在北部低地的人们身上。近年来，丛林话语与在公园中加强保护军事化以打击“毒品战争”的倡导相结合。因此，我认为保护主义者和军队在复制社会不平等方面是同谋，往往是通过暴力排斥的方式。