Women’s voices in the Samarco disaster:Processes of embodiment and empowerment in the face of neo-extractivism in Brazil

Abctract:

The rise of neoextractivism as a driving force of development in Latin American countries has mobilized the research agenda over the last two decades across the continent. In Brazil, neoextractivism has been accompanied by processes of environmental deregulation and the violation of rights enshrined since the country’s re-democratization. In the state of Minas Gerais, the recurrence of mining disasters points to eminently disruptive and fragmenting social processes, which call into question the trust placed in modern expectations of control and security. What we witness in the present is the damage, violence, and suffering of the many mining experiences. Against this backdrop, the political subjectivities of people affected by mining are constructed through multiple paths, not commonly visible in the repertoire of resistance. Based on ethnographic research into the governance of the Samarco disaster in Rio Doce, Brazil, the paper looks at the diversity that comprises the universe of the women affected to understand how they express their experiences of fighting for reparations and, in particular, the consequences of their protagonism in personal, professional and community lives. Taking ecofeminist and Latin American political ecology as a reference, the analysis points to the limits of the male vision that generally prevails in the formulation of governance mechanisms, which are hardly guided by an intersectional dimension, which contributes to aggravating the damage to women.

Keywords: mining; women; resistance; disaster; Rio Doce; neoextractivism; Mariana.