Ana Esther Ceceña[1]
Aquí estamos/siempre estamos
No nos fuimos/no nos vamos
Residente
_____________________________________________________________________
NOT ALL GENOCIDES ARE VISIBLE
Genocide has been a recurrent practice exercised by those in positions of power, as well as by those aspiring to attain such power. The advent of the modern era was marked by a major genocide—the largest recorded to date—after which genocide may be identified as an extreme mechanism of social and political regulation. The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (United Nations, 2025) defines it as “…an act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” As set forth in the Convention, the decisive criterion for legal classification is not the number of fatalities, injuries, or the scale of destruction, but rather the presence of intent—a criterion inherently subjective. The text nonetheless introduces a degree of clarification by specifying that “…it must be determined that the victims were deliberately targeted […] the aim of destruction must be the group, as such, or even a part of it, but not its members as individuals.”
The foundational genocide of the modern era unfolded over more than a century, during which policies of extermination and enslavement were systematically implemented against the populations of what is now the Americas. This was accompanied by the forced uprooting of countless African communities from their territories of origin and their transplantation to what was euphemistically designated the “New World.” Whether extermination was the primary objective remains debatable, given that the initial impetus of the invading powers was commercial, directed toward securing optimal routes to the East. Nevertheless, it is unequivocally evident that these populations were deliberately targeted. Once it became apparent that the newly encountered territories contained substantial material wealth, the pursuit of the Indies was set aside in favor of the more immediate objective of territorial seizure and the extraction of readily accessible resources, notably gold and silver.
The same UN document aptly recognizes that “genocide is a process” rather than an isolated event, thereby acknowledging its potential to extend over prolonged periods. However, it fails to identify the interplay of factors that sustain both the occurrence and duration of genocidal processes. Based on the analysis of multiple cases—both historical and ongoing—it is possible to identify several determinants, absent from the UN’s framework, that play a significant role in the (ir)rational logics underpinning genocide.
The Underlying Causes of Genocide
In all the genocides examined in our research, racial, ethnic, and religious components can be clearly identified. However, in every case, there also emerge underlying factors that help explain why, at a particular historical juncture, such differences could no longer accommodate a framework of acceptable coexistence and instead led to the pursuit of radical confrontation or the annihilation of the other.
These genocides tend to occur either in regions of exceptional geostrategic significance—as in the cases of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and Gaza—or in territories endowed with valuable and strategically important natural resources, within the context of capitalist reproduction and struggles for hegemony, as seen in the Americas, Namibia, Sudan, and Rwanda.
Genocide in the Lands of Abya Yala (the Americas)
In cases as distant in time as the invasion of the Americas, extermination was deemed indispensable to weaken resistance, claiming the lives of over 100 million people, but it ceased short of the complete eradication of the population. Given the scale and diversity of resources that could be extracted or exploited in situ, it became necessary to limit extermination to levels that facilitated territorial occupation while ensuring the retention of a population that could be harnessed as a labor force in agriculture, mining, livestock herding, and other activities sustaining both the invaders’ survival in considerable luxury and the plunder and export of wealth to Europe.
However, the extreme violence inflicted upon peoples who refused to submit made it necessary to seek labor from elsewhere: where excesses surpassed the limits of sustainability, Africans—wrenched from their homelands—were brought in, having themselves survived a distinct genocidal process. In other words, the racial, ethnic, and religious discourse that framed the peoples of the Americas and Africa as inferior functioned primarily as a mechanism of subjugation and dispossession, legitimizing both territorial occupation and the extraction of their wealth.
This episode can undoubtedly be classified as genocide. What remains difficult to ascertain, however—following the United Nations’ criteria—is whether the intent was, strictly speaking, extermination, or whether extermination was carried out as a means to facilitate the appropriation of territory and its abundant resources, particularly precious metals.
Between 1492 and 1810, the total quantity of gold extracted from the Americas amounted to approximately 1,685 metric tons—representing 45% of global production at the time (TePaske, 2010, p. 49). Moreover, «…according to the classic calculations of Gunder Frank, between 1500 and 1800 the Americas produced 87% of the world’s silver: approximately 17,000 metric tons in the sixteenth century, 420,000 in the seventeenth, and 740,000 in the eighteenth» (Bonialian & Hausberger, 2018. Free translation AEC).
Genocide in Namibia
At the beginning of the twentieth century, between 60,000 and 80,000 members of the Herero people (approximately 80% of their population) and between 10,000 and 20,000 members of the Nama people were killed by the German colonial state in order to suppress an anti-colonial uprising. These events took place during a period of intense global competition, with capitalism in full expansion, advancing through the conquest of territories and the establishment of extractive routes—primarily for minerals essential to industrial performance and competitiveness. The expansion of the railway system, which incorporated vast new territories, and the proliferation of machinery for large-scale factories—both heavy consumers of metals—marked the race for global leadership within a system forged on a planetary scale, which required both the means and the resources to establish control at the global level.
In this context, what is today known as Namibia represented an immense opportunity amid the rivalry between emerging powers, at a time when the British Empire was on the brink of decline. Located in southwestern Africa, accessible via the Atlantic Ocean, the land of the Herero and Nama peoples concentrated resources that, in the early twentieth century—as a century later—were of considerable economic and strategic significance. Diamonds and uranium served as the driving forces behind the racial hatred that unleashed the massacre, carried out under a policy of total annihilation; yet, a hundred years later, these same resources remain powerful incentives for sustaining channels of extraction.
Considering the historical moment in which the Namibian genocide took place—the destruction of its population and the occupation of its territory, whose abundance of resources can be observed in Map 1—it appears to have been more closely tied to extraction, to the diamond rush, than to purely ethnic or racial disputes, though these undoubtedly played a role. It is therefore reasonable to question whether the policy of “racial cleansing” was the cause in itself, or rather an instrument serving more mundane objectives.
Map 1. Africa Natural Wealth
Genocide in Tamil Eelam
The relentless drive for appropriation inherent to the capitalist process of accumulation, together with the struggle for power that shapes the contest over hierarchies and leadership in the contemporary world, gives rise to an ever-renewed geopolitical reconfiguration of global territory—one that necessarily encompasses the control of the seas.
The relevance of territories—including maritime spaces—lies not only in their wealth but also in their geographic position. Access points such as those located alongside straits and canals, or islands and archipelagos that either obstruct or facilitate passage, or that provide privileged vantage points for observation, hold a unique and unrepeatable geostrategic importance. Such is the case of the Tamil territory in Sri Lanka, which could be regarded as the “watchtower” of the Bay of Bengal (see Map 2).
Map 2. Strategic Routes of the Indo-Pacific
Organized around the port of Trincomalee—renowned for its depth and natural capacity to accommodate large military vessels—the Tamil state (Tamil Eelam), with its project of independence and autonomy, became an obstacle to the control of the Indo-Pacific region sought by the United States and the United Kingdom, the Allied powers, within the framework of the Cold War and the global contest for power. The reasons for the region’s immense geostrategic value are manifold. In addition to having traditionally been a hub of global trade and a crossroads for the exchange of highly coveted goods such as silk, spices, carpets, and even gunpowder—long before the rise of capitalism and partly fueling its global expansion—it serves as the most important transit route for oil from the Caspian region, the Persian Gulf, and surrounding areas to the Asian countries of the Pacific basin, including China, Japan, South Korea, and the Asian Tigers.
The wealth and economic density of the Indo-Pacific, surrounding the island of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Eelam, can be observed in the table below.
The economic power of the countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal—together with China, which may be considered part of this grouping—is complemented by their natural endowment of mineral resources, as shown in Map 3.
Map 3. Natural Resources of the Indo-Pacific Region
Genocide in Rwanda
Rwanda is a very small country, yet strategically located next to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the richest nations in the world in terms of natural and strategic resources. The mines are concentrated in the eastern region, which explains why the small-scale war provoked by Rwanda in 2025—precisely in that area—can be interpreted as driven by its interest in appropriating a share of those resources.
The genocide in Rwanda was among the most brutal and merciless in history. In a short span of time, one million people were slaughtered in the most horrific manner. Although this genocide had a clear and explicit ethnic dimension, the cleansing of the territory cannot be fully understood without reference to the vast resources of its neighboring country and the interest of Western powers in penetrating the Congo through Rwanda.
Genocide in Sudan
Sudan lies at the heart of a region endowed with immense natural wealth and significant geostrategic importance, while simultaneously constituting one of the weakest links in that chain. It possesses major gold mines and oil fields, which became fragmented following the secession of South Sudan—a process marked by clear political and territorial dynamics, rather than exclusively ethnic ones.
The Sahel belt, which spans Africa horizontally, is characterized by a broad and diverse range of resources. Particularly notable are gold, oil, uranium, and water from underground aquifers and the Nile River (see table and Map 4).
Mapa 4. Sahel’s Natural Wealth
Sudan has experienced repeated episodes of severe repression throughout this century. Protests against the government triggered an initiative aimed at the annihilation of rebellious populations in which, similar to events in Guatemala, a scorched-earth policy was implemented—entire villages were burned to the ground, resulting not only in mass killings but also in the displacement of a population that today numbers three million.
All the countries bordering the Red Sea are of exceptional strategic value. After the Strait of Malacca, which accounts for 30% of global maritime trade, the Suez Canal is the most important passage in the world market, carrying 12% of total seaborne transactions. Sudan, therefore, enjoys rapid access for its gold exports, but it is also positioned between two highly significant oil-producing zones: on one side, facing Saudi Arabia—the holder of the world’s second-largest oil reserves—and in close proximity to the hydrocarbon-rich Caspian–Persian Gulf area; and on the other, adjacent to and part of the oil-producing region of North Africa. Additionally, Sudan is part of the territories favored by the Nile River trade route.
Map 5. Geostrategic Position of Sudan
If this has always been a strategic position, its significance has only grown amid the geopolitical struggle over the redrawing of territorial boundaries in the region. Wars in this area enhance the value of occupying spaces that facilitate the positioning of competing forces, thereby intensifying interest in Sudanese territory. This, once again, calls into question the prevailing criteria used to define genocide, suggesting the need to include among them the appropriation of natural resources and the occupation and control of territory.
Genocide in Gaza
The genocide in Gaza stands as one of the most perverse—and longest-lasting—atrocities of our present time. In particular, its intensification since 7 October 2023 underscores the inability of institutional systems such as the United Nations, with all its organizations, councils, and committees, to regulate relations among states, groups, and territories and to safeguard life above the interests of power. The obscenity of attempting to conceal images of human devastation while openly declaring the intent to completely empty Gaza’s territory—in a final-solution operation following two years of total siege, during which the future itself was targeted through deliberate attacks on children—makes evident both the incapacity of the system and the powerlessness of society within that framework.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel on Palestinian territory, a narrative has been disseminated—both internally and externally—that identifies objectives at once brutal and uncompromising, objectives that can only be fully realized through the complete disappearance of the enemy. These are relentless actions, without limits, directed not only against the fish but also against the water that surrounds it—total and exhaustive annihilation.
The racial hatreds generated in this context, which cannot be overlooked, are not devoid of territorial expansionist aims. The waters of the West Bank, but above all the strategic position of Gaza facing the Mediterranean, the significant offshore gas deposits in its surrounding waters, and the potential disruption of the routes for a possible canal—either as an alternative or complement to the Suez Canal—linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean (see Map 6), all reveal the geoeconomic and geopolitical stakes at play.
Map 6. Projected Ben Gurion Canal
The rationale for this new canal is deeply connected to the web of wars, instabilities, provocations, and the ongoing geopolitical redesign of an absolutely strategic region—one that is pivotal to the reconfiguration of global hegemony and its underlying conditions (Ceceña, 2024). The control, by the so-called “West” through Israel, of the Mediterranean coasts is a long-standing ambition, justified through the demonization of Hamas or Hezbollah. The fabrication of narratives and the use of mass media have been among the key tools sustaining interventions such as those in Iraq and Syria, the bombings of Yemen and Iran, and now serve as the discursive and political scaffolding for Israel’s genocidal intervention in Gaza.
The regional conditions of the territories surrounding Gaza—their geostrategic position and the wealth they contain—cannot be overlooked in understanding the dynamics of this conflict.
Final Reflection
The classification of genocide requires a thorough analysis of the conditions under which it occurs, of the underlying reasons that explain it, and of the factors that reveal where society’s inability to halt such processes is rooted. To date, the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide has recognized four explanatory elements: race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. Based on research into various cases of genocide, as well as the statistical and cartographic data presented here, it is clear that although these elements are prominent in the narratives, they are insufficient to fully explain the phenomena.
First and foremost, genocide must be understood as the outcome of processes—a point acknowledged by the Convention itself—and it is within these processes that its deeper causes must be uncovered. In this regard, taking into account that all genocides are embedded within the channels and power dynamics of capitalism, I propose, as a working hypothesis, that genocides represent extreme moments in a struggle for territories and their resources. Without considering these elements in their historical trajectory, it is impossible to comprehend the roots of racial, ethnic, or religious hatred, nor the disputes over nation or national identity.
It is therefore necessary to seek ways to expand the definitional framework of genocide to include issues of territoriality—specifically, the strategic density of territories, or, in other words, their geostrategic conditions and their resources.
References
Bonialian, Mariano y Hausberger, Bernd. 2018. Consideraciones sobre el comercio y el papel de la plata hispanoamericana en la temprana globalización, siglos xvi-xix. HMex, LXVIII: 1.
Ceceña, Ana Esther, 2024. Los nudos geopolíticos y el genocidio en Gaza. Arreaza, Jorge y Carucí, Nerliny, comp. El imperialismo al desnudo. Modalidades de guerra y colonización en el tablero político del siglo XXI. Caracas. Alba-TCP.
ONU, 2025. Convención para la Prevención y la Sanción del Delito de Genocidio de 1948. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Genocide%20Convention-FactSheet-SP.pdf
TePaske, John, 2010. A New World of Gold and Silver, Boston, Brill.
USGS, 2025. Critical Minerals.
USGS, 2025. World Petroleum Assessment. https://certmapper.cr.usgs.gov/data/apps/world-energy/?resource=continuous
[1] Coordinadora del Observatorio Latinoamericano de Geopolítica, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, UNAM. Directora editorial de la Agencia Latinoamericana de Información (ALAI) y de la revista América Latina en Movimiento.
