The Amazon and the “authoritarian utopia”: Integration, occupation and exploitation yesterday and today

• Autor(a) principal: Queirós, César Augusto Bubolz
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Ibero-Americanos
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/index.php/iberoamericana/article/view/42458
• topic: Amazon; dictatorship; authoritarian utopia; occupation; Amazônia; ditadura; utopia autoritária; ocupação; Amazónia; dictadura; utopía autoritaria; ocupación

In the historical process of Portuguese colonization in Brazil and the imagery construction of the Amazon, the region was the object of a set of representations that placed it both in the condition of an obstacle to progress, an uncivilized region with an unsubmissive nature, and as a frontier to be achieved in order to integrate those vast and rich lands into national development. It would, therefore, be an immense demographic and civilizing “void” that needed to be incorporated into the Nation, through the action of the State and private agents – supported by their action. The Amazon has always had a strong presence in the national imagination and in power projects that were raised to the national sphere. Currently, with the escalation of devastated areas in the region during the Bolsonaro government and all the attacks that promoted a dismantling of the inspection bodies, the action of illegal loggers and miners was facilitated, and the fires reached rates that alarmed the international community. This article aims to analyze some initiatives to use the region’s riches and to colonize the Amazon valley, highlighting the relationship between the investments in exploration in the Amazon and the emergence of authoritarian governments. For that, we used speeches of agents involved in the process in dialogue with the relevant bibliography in order to problematize the process of predatory occupation of the Amazon.