Multinational oil corporations in a neoliberal era: Enron, Shell, and the political ecology of conflict over the Cuiaba pipeline in Bolivia's Chiquitania

With the spectacular financial collapse of Enron in 2001, Enron and Shell's Cuiabá gas pipeline gained international notoriety for degrading the last, most intact, dry tropical forest in the world, the Chiquitano Forest. This dissertation identifies and analyzes those specific actions undertaken by various stakeholders that were effective in preventing or mitigating negative social and environmental impacts of the pipeline. It uses this case, among others, to explore how Bolivia's neoliberal economic “reforms” affected indigenous and environmental groups' efforts to mobilize against hydrocarbons projects brought by such policies. The dissertation concludes that these policies, which resulted in partial privatization of the state oil company, and expanded control over natural resources by multinational corporations, were responsible for a series of negative social and environmental impacts in the country. The analysis is based on an action-oriented political ecology approach, which examines the interaction between political interests, social institutions, and human-environment relations, with the aim of actively aiding vulnerable populations under study, namely the Chiquitano and Ayoreo indigenous communities affected by the Cuiabá pipeline. The dissertation begins with a historical geography of the region known as the Chiquitanía, highlighting struggles between indigenous peoples and external actors over natural resources, livelihood, and identity.