Between Compensation and SilenceEnvironmental Necropolitics in the Legal Settlement for Full Reparation of the Mariana Disaster

Resumo

This article offers a critical analysis of the 2024 Full and Definitive Legal Reparation Settlement, signed following the failure of the Fundão tailings dam. It argues that the settlement institutionalizes a form of environmental necropolitics by converting the Mariana (MG) disaster-crime into a matter of technical management and financial compensation. Rather than delivering substantive justice, the legal framework suppresses the ongoing suffering and territorial claims of the affected communities. Grounded in political ecology and critical legal studies, the research focuses on clauses concerning broad discharge, waiver of appeal and procedural closure, interpreted as legal mechanisms for silencing the affected communities. Focusing on the Doce River Basin – particularly in Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo – the study highlights how this model reinforces the coloniality of power by erasing local knowledge and lifestyles in favor of legal predictability. It concludes that the agreed-upon reparation fosters economic pacification rather than ecological, cultural and communal reconstruction.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Artigo científico

Ano

2026

Instituição

ANPUR

Fonte

Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais

Idioma

Português

Acesso

Não informado

DOI

10.22296/2317-1529.rbeur.202607pt

Identificador

oai:ojs.rbeur.anpur.org.br:article/7986

Licença

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Temas

Meio Ambiente

Palavras-chave

Ecologia PolíticaJustiça AmbientalTerritório e TerritorialidadesDesastre de MarianaBacia do Rio DocePolitical EcologyEnvironmental JusticeTerritory and TerritorialitiesMariana DisasterDoce River Basin