The Most Polluted River in the World: The Politics of Precarity Amid Disaster in Chinautla, Guatemala

In the mid-1950s, Guatemala City development planners constructed a new water drainage system for the capital, channeling wastewater and sewage away from the wealthy suburbs south of the city and toward the Río Las Vacas and marginalized communities to the north. This proved disastrous for residents of the Poqomam Maya town of Santa Cruz Chinautla, as the river that flowed through the town's center became a deadly channel of polluted water, exacerbated every year by seasonal flooding. This situation worsened for many chinautlecos after the devastating 1976 earthquake; some relocated and formed a new town, Nueva Chinautla, while others remained in place. This essay analyzes chinautlecos’ responses to this ongoing environmental disaster, arguing that they created hierarchies of precarity that in turn shaped decision-making processes about the bioregion and their place within it.