An analysis of the criminalization of socio-environmental activism and resistance in contemporary Latin America

This chapter focuses on contemporary disputes over Indigenous territories and extractive practices, shedding light on the ways in which the legal system is used by states to criminalize activists resisting dispossession. It considers a brief but broader history of criminalization in Latin America, reflecting on its linkages to capitalism and colonialism. The chapter focuses on contemporary uses of criminalization as a tool to control dissent, focusing on how socio-environmental activists and Indigenous peoples in Brazil have been marginalized and the ways they have resisted the current predicament. The history of criminalization cannot be separated from the history of capitalist development and the formation of a racial-patriarchal order. The legal system has long been used as a means of controlling resisting subjects, activists and those considered marginalized. The criminalization of socio-environmental activists and Indigenous movements has increased substantially since the return of conservative and far-right governments to mainstream politics in Brazil, prompting a strong movement of resistance.