Water Is Worth More Than Gold: Networked Activism and Transnational Resistance to Extractivism in the Cerro Blanco Mining Conflict
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This paper analyzes the Cerro Blanco mining conflict in Asunción Mita, Guatemala, as a pivotal case of networked activism in Central America. On September 18, 2022, 89% of Asunción Mita’s residents voted against the Cerro Blanco metallic mining project, citing concerns over water contamination and environmental degradation. This decisive referendum was met with resistance from Bluestone Resources, the Canadian mining company, and the Guatemalan government, which challenged the legitimacy of the vote, exposing tensions between community sovereignty, state policies, and corporate interests. Using the "Not In Anyone’s Backyard" (NIABY) framework and water justice principles, the paper explores how the Cerro Blanco case represents grassroots resistance to transnational extractivism, particularly in relation to shared water resources in the Lempa River basin, which connects Guatemala and El Salvador. The study highlights how networked activism, involving local, regional, and international actors, fosters opposition to extractivism and advocates for sustainable governance. Framing water as both a human right and a shared common good, the paper underscores the importance of collective action and transboundary cooperation in safeguarding ecosystems and advancing environmental justice. The study calls for stronger legal protections, such as the Escazú Agreement, to ensure inclusive decision-making in natural resource management. By positioning the Cerro Blanco conflict within broader regional struggles for water justice, the paper emphasizes the transformative potential of networked activism in resisting extractive industries and promoting equitable resource governance.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.009 | 0.021 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.006 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".