State of Exception and Internal Colonialism:The Construction of the Belo Monte Power Plant in Brazil

Abstract

This study analyzes two of the most important pillars of Brazil's developmentalist project: its internal colonialism and the use of the State of Exception. In order to do that, the focus of the analysis is the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, identified as an outstanding case of Brazil's development project. The adopted methodology is based on bibliographic and documentary review through law and literature. It explains the Brazilian project by tracing parallels between the Belo Monte plant and the construction of the windmill in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. The first parallel is the manipulation of ideas to generate social legitimization. In Orwell’s novella, the legitimation was generated by the popular demand for better lives for all, summarized in the promise of the “three-days week”, while in Brazil the basis for social legitimation is the fuzzy concept of development, almost interchangeable with economic growth, based on a notion of trickle-down economics according to which the whole population would stand to gain from the enrichment of a few. The second parallel is the creation of a State of Exception aimed at making the exception of law the rule in specific territories and to specific populations in order to legally justify the constructions. Finally, it brings up a debate about what it means to be a subject of rights in a context of autoimperialism, drawing attention to the fact that traditional populations, such as indigenous peoples, are being sacrificed in the name of a Brazilian developmental project, as for accumulation to exists it needs to coexist with violence and hoarding.