Wind Energy Farms' Impacts on Environmental Justice and Human Rights

‘Centre’ groups – governments and private investors – argue that wind energy farms can contribute to global sustainable development and environmental conservation. However, the geographical and cultural landscape attachments of ‘periphery’ groups – indigenous people –confront the arguments of ‘centre’ groups. This article employs internal colonialism and environmental justice theories to discuss indigenous people’s roots of opposition to wind energy farms at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Based on a qualitative longitudinal study developed between 2013 and 2018, the findings suggest that indigenous people’s social unrest towards wind energy is based on human rights abuses, uneven regional development and environmental (in)justice. The findings are discussed based on the history embedded in indigenous people’s struggle against foreign and local invasions, understood as internal colonialism. Indigenous people continue their fight to control their geographical and cultural landscapes and to preserve their visions of environmental justice.