Abstract:
The objective of the research is to analyze the interests involved in the project of the
Ferrovia de Integração Oeste-Leste (FIOL), foreseen in the Programa de Aceleração do
Crescimento (PAC) and gained new institutionality when it was included in the initiative
of the Integração da Infraestrutura Regional Sul-americana (IIRSA). It is also meaningful
to analyze the role of the State in its implementation. An effort is made to understand the
logical approach of FIOL in different spatial scales and their determinations, in a
dependent economy and in a specific historical context, that is, the beginning of the 21st
century. This period is characterized on a global scale by a new geopolitical and economic
context marked by the rise of China and a reorganization of the international division of
labor. On the South American scale, a reorientation of the integration policies of the
continent was observed, with the creation of IIRSA, with the objective of facilitating the
flow of exports and imports of goods, basically targeting the external market. The focus
of research, FIOL was integrated with IIRSA through the expansion of the Integration
and Development Hub of Amazonas in 2012, with the incorporation of new spaces, such
as the Northeast region of Brazil, and with the addition of new projects to its investment
portfolio. The thesis, of a qualitative and exploratory nature, is supported by the approach
of Political Economy, Political Geography and Political Ecology. The thesis highlights
the role of the State in the definition and financing of the FIOL project and its articulation
with certain fractions of the capital of the power block, which became hegemonic in the
Brazilian development pattern of the beginning of the 21st century. The FIOL was
designed with the goal of reducing the rotation time of capital and enabling the integration
of new spaces into the dynamics of capital appreciation at all scales. Thus, the project is
in dialogue with the scales and interests of certain fractions of capital, especially
agribusiness, mining and finance. The FIOL supports the capitalist production of space,
but, on the other hand, reinforces its spoiling nature. At the same time that FIOL serves
the interests of capital, it ignores subjects and their territory at lower spatial scales, as
well as their forms of social and ecological organization. FIOL reproduces the colonial
legacy and its forms of domination and insertion in the world-modern-colonial system.
