Territories integrated by large investment projects: reflections from the southeast and the north of Brasil

Abstract

This article discusses the correlation between territorial integration through large investment projects (GPIs) in infrastructure and their domination and territorial impacts caused to indigenous peoples, peasants and local fishermen in the Southeast and North regions of Brazil. Its purpose is to understand, from a dialectical perspective, what we call the “process of territorial integration-disintegration” associated with the Açu Port Complex, in the North of the state of Rio de Janeiro, and the Carajás Railroad, in the Amazon. To this end, we draw on studies and research involving the themes of territorial fragmentation, deindustrialization processes, and commodities, in addition to technical documents concerning the ventures and information collected in field research (2019-2020). In these regions, these two GPIs, with global connections, are responsible for human displacement, exclusion of areas for agriculture and fishing, land expropriation, violence, and environmental degradation that occur concomitantly with their physical-territorial expansion. The consequences of this process exacerbate conflicts in these territories, dialectically integrated-disintegrated by capital and the State, and in them emerge resistance from local social groups against the usurpation of their social rights and the destruction of nature and cultures.