BR-163 people’s revolts against crises of the government’s environmentalization

Abstract

I analyze how crises were woven into a metanarrative that justified the revolts of those who presented themselves as the people from Novo Progresso and/or from the BR-163 region (West of Pará, Brazil). Despite internal disputes, rural producers, gold miners, businessmen, loggers, small settlers and indigenous people eventually joined forces in collective actions since the demarcation of the Baú Indigenous Land and the implementation of policies to mitigate the impacts of paving the BR-163 (Cuiabá-Santarém). I argue that these joint mobilizations were the result of the construction of moral-affective communities that shared memories about the injustices of the federal government since the opening of the highway by the military dictatorship. In these memories, which make up the knowledge of the region, they condemned the reproduction of precariousness and crises by the State through narratives of abandonment, sacrifices, suffering, humiliation, disrespect for rights, struggles, love for the land and threats such as invasions. I draw on fieldwork in the municipality of Novo Progresso, as well as social media, press reports, government documents and publications written by residents of the region.