Dependence and state-led expropriation of land in the neo-developmental / neo-extractive context: implications for reproduction of communities affected by the Minas-Rio Pipeline and the Açu Port Complex

Abstract

With 1,121 expropriations for the construction of the Minas-Rio (Brazil) pipeline and 1,500 families expropriated for the construction of the Açu Port Complex (Brazil), adding to the impact on aquatic systems with degradation, increased demand, salinization and release of suspended iron ore, these large enterprises produce deleterious socio-environmental effects. This, in a context of economic development based on the export of agricultural, mining and energy commodities, pipelines and ports form structures of integration to the global chain ensuring the reproduction of capital while at the local scale they affect the social reproduction of local communities. In analyzing the economic dependence of Brazil within the framework of Neo-extractivism, this article seeks to identify links between these enterprises and the economic development model, which explain the causes of the impacts that affect socio-family and community reproduction, through a bibliographical research and a survey of official documents. The main conclusion of the analysis is that the impacts to social reproduction in territories that develop traditional practices and ways of life result from an option to adopt a development strategy that leads to the deepening of external economic dependence, while aggravating social and environmental vulnerabilities at a local scale.