Implications of capitalist expansion at the frontier in the context “Post-Amazon Operation”: development for whom?

Abstract

The objective of this article is to discuss the main socio-economic implications of the expansion of capital on the Amazon frontier, especially in the State of Pará, after “Amazon Operation”, and how to answer the following question: What, in fact, is there any type of development? For this answer, it is urgent to adopt a qualitative-exploratory approach as a methodological procedure. When analyzing the performance of the Amazon economy and, particularly, the economy of Pará, it is evident that the policy of industrial development and the region's own livestock production has been successful from the point of view of economic growth, achieving results that are not very satisfactory from the point of view of society. This was the case of a development strategy applied by the military through “Amazon Operation” which, on the one hand, managed to “open up” the Amazon by expanding its infrastructure base, discovering its potential and attracting large undertakings aimed at economic export; On the other hand, it is evident that the various public policy instruments are of little scope, with no sense of not being able to provide the region with a self-sustained process of regional development, in particular for the Pará frontier.