When development dreams produce monsters

violence as part of the modernization strategy in the Brazilian countryside

Abstract

Based on the enunciation of some cases of murders and threats to leaders and members of traditional communities, this article intends to focus on three aspects, in order to contribute to the discussion of the Geography of violence in the countryside in Brazil: the first of them is based in a reading of some analyzes on the idea of ​​“frontier”, considered the locus of materialization of conflicts in the countryside; the second aspect seeks to highlight the pragmatic elements surrounding land deals and development projects observed in frontier areas in Brazil, which combine modern and colonial tactics to enable mechanisms of accumulation; finally, it is intended to point out elements around violence in the countryside, using data presented by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in 2017. In this sense, some elements of land conflits are emphasized, based on some forms of violence operation, agents, victims, as well as the regional distribution of cases, concentrated in Cerrado and Legal Amazon areas.