Violence in the Amazon: Governmentality based on failure

Understanding Violence in the Brazilian Amazon

The Brazilian Amazon is often portrayed as a region of underdevelopment and extreme violence. Security experts commonly attribute its conflicts to state abandonment and lack of governance. From early 20th-century struggles to the modern-day expansion of drug trafficking factions, the narrative about violence in the Amazon has shaped policies and public perceptions. However, this perspective, which I refer to as the absence discourse, oversimplifies a far more complex reality. This, in turn, may lead analysts and policymakers to make potentially harmful misjudgments.

The Myth of State Abandonment

Contrary to the dominant narrative, my research shows that the Amazon has never been entirely abandoned by the Brazilian state. Instead, strict legal and political control has been imposed, repeatedly denying autonomy to local communities and indigenous peoples.

From a sovereignty perspective, governance structures do not exercise power through absence. Rather, they rely on selective regulation that perpetuates violence and instability.

This argument aligns with Michel Foucault’s relational analysis of power and applys the concept of “governmentality” to the Brazilian reality. It reveals that Amazonian violence is not just a consequence of fragile institutions. Instead, it is the deliberate product of governance mechanisms that sustain illegal economies and preserve regional instability.

Colonial Governmentality and the Production of Illegality

Rather than an unintended consequence, violence in the Amazon is a structural effect of what I call colonial governmentality. This system sustains control through systematic failure and weakens local potential.

Persistent instability does not stem from a lack of governance. Instead, it results from a deliberate strategy that fosters illegality while keeping the region’s complexity under state domination.

This research challenges conventional views on security and sovereignty in the Amazon. Read the full article to explore how violence is shaped by governance strategies, not by state absence.