Uma etnografia das práticas de negociação: pressões de um empreendimento minerador em território do povo Mura no Amazonas

Abstract

The Amazon has been the target of continuous processes of economic exploitation, which have affected indigenous peoples, traditional communities and the environment. In recent years, there has been an intensification in the implementation of mega-projects, such as hydroelectric dams, agribusiness and mining, supported by the Brazilian State, tensioning conflicts and revealing acts of violence. The inner city of Autazes - AM, in the Madeira mesoregion, is an empirical example of the advance of mining. In this sense, this study, entitled “An ethnography of negotiation practices: pressures from a mining enterprise in the territory of the Mura people in Amazonas”, seeks to describe the political and organizational forms of the Mura in response to the conflicts generated by the Potássio do Brasil Ltda enterprise, a subsidiary of the Canadian commercial bank Forbes & Manhattan, which aims to extract sylvinite, the raw material for potassium (K), on the Mura territory. It can be seen that this venture has economic appeal considering that this mineral is of fundamental importance to agribusiness, since 95% of all production is used as agricultural fertilizer. Using an ethnographic approach, the research focuses on the ways in which the Mura mobilize through organizations and associations, consolidating a collective force of resistance in which the so-called “Encontro” is consolidated. The study also highlights the strategic forms adopted by the mining company, which has the support of the Brazilian government in its three branches. In addition, it has the support of managers at both the state and federal levels, who articulate measures to facilitate the expansion of the mining enterprise in the Autazes/AM region. This study reveals the dynamics of power and resistance in a context marked by territorial conflicts.