Pouvoir, préservation, prédation. Les frontières d’Amérique latine témoins d’un continent sous tensions

Abstract

Since March 2020, borders have been the instruments of simultaneous closure rationales throughout the world. At the same time, the continuation of migratory movements underlined their porosity. We focus on Latin America's state borders because this unprecedented situation shown once again how they are subject to contradictory processes and schizophrenic rationales that come into tension and reflect the current dynamics of the sub-continent. From an approach based on the border studies theoretical framework, and more specifically through the political geography of borders one, this article deals with the bordering processes at work on the Latin America borders’s and the contradictory dynamics that we can observe there today. Around borders, new complex realities are emerging, which sometimes give the image of a fragmented continent and sometimes a increasing integration to the sub-continental. The political, economic and social tensions to which the Latin American borders are subjected today can be summarized around three notions - power, preservation and predation - which seem us reflecting the major issues at stake in these spaces today. Each of these three notions crystallizes strong dialectics which will be considered in turn: political over-investment vs. abandonment of the margins, cross-border integration vs. securitization, preservation vs. predation.

Keywords

• frontière
• Amérique latine
• border studies
• intégration régionale
• sécurisation
• extractivisme