It is with great pleasure that the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) announces the recipient of the 2020 CALACS Article Prize for Emerging Scholars: David Longtin for his essay: "Entre vie nue et projets de mort: l’imaginaire de la violence dans le discours du Conseil civique des organisations populaires et indigènes du Honduras (2009–2015)" publised in the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CJLAC) Vol. 44 (2).

The jury unanimously agreed on the selection of this paper for the second annual CALACS prize. The jury found that it was a compelling paper that does an important contribution to understand the complexities of the social and political construction of the indigenous environmental citizenship. This citizenship articulates the defense of nature from the dignity of the human life which is closely associated to the natural world. The essay develops a semiotic analysis of the political discourses of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH, for its acronym in Spanish). The jury consideres that the article does a magnificent job in revealing the sense of damage to nature from the perspective of the Lenca indigenous peoples of Honduras. The paper describes the terrible human costs environmental destruction has meant for indigenous activists due to the presence of extractive mining industries and the construction of hydroelectric plants in their ancestral territories.

The essay is innovative in that it seeks to go beyond western frameworks of international indigenous human rights conventions, revealing the legal and illegal powers that repress and criminalize indigenous and peasant protest. Theoretically, it is a solid essay that shows a broad handling of contemporary debates on the use of political violence in environmental conflicts, and it uses a robust methodological strategy for the analysis of COPINH communiques. Finally, jury agrees  that the paper contributes to understanding violence as a political instrument of power in post-cold war contexts in Central America. Dr. Lonting is careful in documenting the innovative ways in which indigenous activism has broaden the spectrum of rights to nature, echoing the agency of other indigenous peoples of Central America as their struggle for life. Dr. Longting is Faculty member of Social Sciences and School of Political Studies in the University of Ottawa.

The CALACS Article Prize for Emerging Scholars is a new award intended to recognize and encourage talented junior scholars in the field of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. The articles were adjudicated by a three-person jury. The jury and CALACS would like to congratulate all nominees for the outstanding quality of their submission and thank them for participating in the competition.
 CALACS is a diverse and vibrant Canadian based international scholarly organization that promotes disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and teaching. The Association disseminates and mobilizes knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean and their diasporas through networks and partnerships in Canada and abroad.