Is Latin America a lonely periphery of geopolitics? How does Indigenous people’s resistance change our thinking of geopolitics? And how do railways relate to all this? This episode explores the positioning of Latin America in the broader geopolitical landscape, the communication routes, canals and connectivities between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Our guest, Ana Esther Ceceña, draws our attention to the Americas as an island-continent seeking routes for transportation, extraction and control as well as the land of Indigenous peoples with different ways of life and resistance. By addressing complex systems, the episode dives deep in the complicated geopolitics and resistance related to the Interoceanic or Transisthmian Train in the Tehuantepec, and the Maya Train in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Join us for this intriguing episode hosted by Hanna Laako.
Ana Esther Ceceña is a professor of geopolitics and economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is the founder and coordinator of the Latin American Observatory of Geopolitics. Her research is particularly focused on natural resources, social movements, militarization and hegemonies. She has been engaged with various social and Indigenous movements. Ana has published extensively during her career. Her recent articles deal with the geopolitics of trains, including the book chapter “Looking south: megaprojects, borders and human (in)mobilities”, published in the Handbook on Critical Political Economy and Public Policy.
Date of recording: 19 March 2025
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