Blazed land, dystopical scenarios: Violence and resistance in mining disaster-crimes in Brazil

Abstract

The dams bursts in the Doce River and Paraopeba River basins, respectively in November 2015 and January 2019, in addition to the 300 deaths resulting directly from the two catastrophes and the overwhelming ecological destruction they produced, triggered the production of a fabric of legal-economic relations of colossal magnitude orbiting around the reparation process. For the arguments presented in this article, two analysis arguments are used: the metaphorical convergence to the characteristics of dystopian artistic expressions, and the correlated effect of estrangement evoked, seeking to develop further arguments and analyses with the purpose of deconstruct established legal and economic processes and practices observed in this context. Similarly, we seek to understand the asymmetrical power relations of the actors involved, contrasting corporate strategies with situations of resistance, mobilization, and popular engagement in the conflictual context of the struggle for full reparation. We discuss how the violating companies constitute strategies of power that pressure for the deconstitution of popular knowledge and practices in the affected territories, and we present a critique of the use of rights violation hidden in the planning practices of these companies. Finally, some of the possibilities of popular organization in the context of full damage compensation are reviewed, underpinning the struggles mobilized against naturalization and legitimation, of the dystopian violence of the mining disasters-crimes in Brazil.

Keywords: mining; disasters crimes; neoextractivism; affected by dams; damage repair.