Contemporary violence against leaders in the Brazilian Amazon: moral, legal and associative frameworks

Abstract

This article analyzes perceptions, classifications and state practices from situations considered as violence according to actors of social mobilization in Altamira and Marabá, Pará. Based on a diagnosis made by our interlocutors who perceives the intensification of violence in the last ten years, and an increasing number of complaints in this regard, we try to understand the reasons to understand the reasons why they diagnose the worsening of the condition and how state practices contribute to its production. Understanding the diversity of situations that are considered to be violence, we seek to describe ethnographically the different meanings of violence as a category, as well as to point to the political understanding that underlies this perception and form of classification. Thus, we argue that the violence scenario presents elements of continuity that go back to long-term state practices implemented in the region, as well as elements of ongoing transformations, noticeable in the increase in the number of homicides against leaders and arbitrary arrests, among others. We conclude that in addition to the intertwining of long-lasting historical processes and the increase in the most expressive form of violence against leaders (homicides), the decrease in the capacity to inflect state practices is a current data to understand the meanings of the increase in violence against leaders in the Amazon.