TERRITORIES AT THE END OF THE WORLD: AMAZONIA AND PATAGONIA UNDER THE COLONIAL LOGIC OF LATIN AMERICAN EXTRACTIVISM

Abstract

This article analyzes the Amazon and Patagonia as territories historically subjected to the colonial logic of economic exploitation and territorial appropriation in Latin America. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on a review of literature and documents, grounded in Latin American decolonial studies—specifically the contributions of Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, and Catherine Walsh. It seeks to understand how both territories were incorporated into national projects and global capitalism through discourses of progress, modernization, and territorial occupation—discourses frequently underpinned by the rendering of Indigenous peoples invisible and the intensive exploitation of natural resources. Although they possess distinct geographical characteristics, the Amazon and Patagonia share similar historical processes marked by extractivism, the coloniality of power, and the marginalization of traditional knowledge systems. The article also discusses contemporary forms of resistance led by Indigenous communities and socio-environmental movements, highlighting the emergence of decolonial perspectives that advocate for alternative ways of relating society, territory, and nature. It concludes that a critical understanding of these spaces requires moving beyond the Eurocentric and developmentalist narratives that historically transformed the Amazon and Patagonia into sites of plunder and frontiers for capital expansion.