From the Agrarian Question to the Territorial Question: Green Grabbing and the Corridors of Extractivist Dispossession in Latin America

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the contemporary forms of territorial dispossession that stem from the energy transition, especially those related to free trade corridors and green grabbing in the context of Latin America. To do this, we describe the reconfigurations of contemporary capitalism for territorializing capital in the geopolitical context of Latin America. At the same time, we argue how the territories of Latin America became strategically relevant for the expanded reproduction of capital in contemporary times. We also shed light on the centrality of free trade agreements and the corridors of extractivist dispossession as a turning point in the expansion—relating to the spectrum of hegemonic and imperialist domination of capital—of legal state frameworks for regulating and justifying full access to the neo-extractivist exploitation of Global South territories. Finally, we show that the “energy transition” supports green grabbing—that is, a new model not just of land grabbing, but rather of comprehensive territorial grabbing, since it means the expropriation of subterranean, maritime, wind, solar, and land territory.