Judicialização de conflitos socioambientais: uma etnografia dos processos e perspectivas da antropologia do Estado no caso do Cajueiro (MA) e o TUP Porto São Luís

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the State of Maranhão has been the stage for conflicts involving, on one side, territories, communities, and traditional peoples, and on the other, large-scale enterprises aimed at developing the region through integration into the national and international economic markets. This study investigates the judicialization of the socio-environmental conflict between the traditional community of Cajueiro and the Private Use Terminal (TUP) Porto São Luís. In light of the judiciary’s growing involvement in socio-environmental disputes, the phenomenon of judicialization emerges, as the judiciary increasingly assumes an active role in matters where the Executive and Legislative branches remain absent. The main objective of the research is to analyze the impacts produced by judicial decisions issued by the Court of Justice of the State of Maranhão (TJMA) in the ongoing legal proceedings related to the conflict. Methodologically, the research is grounded in the ethnography of state documents, aiming to analyze legal actions as investigative artifacts and forming the empirical basis of this study. Thus, the discussions point to the State — in its multifaceted and complex composition — as the primary driving force behind the controversies present in the conflict. The administrative arrangements and their legal foundations supporting the feasibility of the enterprise, such as the Environmental Licensing and the Decree of Expropriation for Public Utility of part of the area, unfolded into legal arguments and were later confirmed through judicial decisions. It is concluded that the articulation among the State, the private port, and the judiciary profoundly impacted the traditional community, resulting in environmental injustice, changes to their way of life, and the destruction and suppression of natural areas due to ongoing illegalities in the enterprise’s implementation process, as well as exacerbating legal uncertainty concerning the existence of the Cajueiro Community