A militarização verde na Amazônia brasileira e o fortalecimento de milícias no Pará durante o governo Bolsonaro

Abstract

This research seeks to analyze how the attempt of green militarization that occurred throughout Bolsonaro’s government (2019 to 2022) influenced the actions of militias in the Brazilian Amazon. To this end, through convergent factual construction, a triangulation of data was carried out from interviews conducted in this research, newspaper sources, documents, and secondary literature in order to factually observe the relationship between the militarization process in the Amazon and the actions of militias in the state of Pará. The study proposal was based on a reflexivist perspective of International Relations, aiming to overcome the traditional binomials of the discipline, such as global/local and public/private. In this sense, the theoretical approach of global assemblages of (in)security was mobilized, understanding the actions of militias in the interior of Pará through the spatial networks and precarious relationships they establish. In summary, it was identified that there was a plan of environmental destructuring composed of allegations of greed and international invasion that supposedly threatened the national interest; anti-environmental rhetoric and discourses of permissiveness towards crime; as well as attacks and initiatives to discredit and dismantle environmental preservation agencies. In this context, GLOs were used as the main "alternatives" in the fight against criminals and environmental crimes during the period, accompanied by the appointment of several military personnel without expertise in the area to high-ranking positions in environmental agencies. As a consequence, the criminal networks already present in the Amazon region found a favorable and propitious context for their action and expansion. Among these groups, there was a favoritism towards militias, also known in the region as armed security forces, which are groups that use both legal and illegal means as well as licit and illicit means to act in the provision of security services to environmental criminals. In particular, the actions of these groups are especially contradictory in the principle of their organization, since they are composed of employees of the public security apparatus, which gives them access to privileged information, the ability to hinder investigations and establish various relationships that benefit them in the search for profit. The results of the research revealed that the attempt at green militarization in the Amazon, promoted during Bolsonaro’s government, not only failed to contain illegal practices associated with deforestation and land grabbing, but also favored the consolidation and expansion of these groups in the region.