The Brazilian dictatorship’s infrastructure projects in the Amazon – advance of capital, geopolitics, high exploitation of the workforce and violence against traditional peoples

Abstract

This article aims to use maps and images of some of the main infrastructure projects of the Brazilian dictatorship in the Amazon region, especially the large highways and hydroelectric plants. By problematizing the geographic layout of these projects, we intend to analyze the favoring of business interests with these interventions, the geopolitical dimension of these initiatives, the high exploitation of the labor force in these projects and the advance on the territories and the expulsion of indigenous and traditional peoples who inhabited these places. Thus, we found that the occupation of border regions and the guarantee of the country’s territorial integrity served as justification to meet the demands of capital that saw good business opportunities in the Brazilian Amazon, using brutal exploitation of the labor force and violence against native peoples and others who inhabited these places.