O chão do conflito: estado ditatorial, grandes projetos e campesinato na Amazônia amapaense (1978-1985)

Abstract

During the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), the Amazon gained centrality in debates on economic development and national integration policies. In this context, the region was the scene of intense and violent conflicts, resulting from the advance of the capitalist frontier over its lands. These were coveted and occupied by mega-projects led by Brazilian and foreign entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurship that decided to invest there had the full support of the military who took control of the state through a coup d'état in 1964. In the wake of the entrepreneurial-military alliance, the group led by Augusto Trajano de Azevedo Antunes appropriated more than 170,000 hectares of land in the Território Federal do Amapá and, through Amapá Florestal e Celulose S.A. (Amcel), it developed a mega-project for the cultivation of pine caribaea, with the aim of producing cellulose. The lands on which Amcel installed its enterprise were already occupied by peasant, which generated the clashes that will be analyzed in this dissertation. Based on the documentation produced by the company itself and other collections, it is intended to characterize the conflicts over land resulting from the installation of Amcel, focusing on the forms of domination and resistance that constituted these conflicts.