Ka'aguy Mba'apo

Indigenous Illicit Work and Strategic Opacity in the Interstices of the Paraguay–Brazil Border

Bibliographic Data

ID24229302
AuthorsPaul Fabié (0009-0005-3822-1890, University of São Paulo São Paulo Brazil)
Year2026
Volume49
Issue2
Publication date2026-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePoLAR Political and Legal Anthropology Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1081-6976 • E-ISSN: 1555-2934
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/plar.70071
OpenAlexW7221077124
LanguageEN
References cited31

This article examines how Indigenous Paĩ Tavyterã/Kaiowa communities along the Paraguay–Brazil border navigate illicit economies that have proliferated amid the expansion of soybean agribusiness and the withdrawal of the state. Drawing on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork in several communities on both sides of the border, it explores how participation in drug‐related work—locally known as ka'aguy mba'apo (“work in the woods”)—is entangled with strategies of subsistence and territorial permanence. The article traces how the “law of the border,” an unwritten and violent normative system, shapes everyday life and constrains the possibilities of visibility and speech. By analyzing the experiences of Indigenous leaders and families involved in, resisting, or negotiating with drug trafficking networks, the article highlights how violence, illegality, and precarity intersect in the interstices of the plantation. It argues that the interstitial geography of the frontier—between legality and illegality, visibility and opacity—produces specific forms of political and ethical navigation. These practices reveal a “strategic opacity” that enables the Paĩ Tavyterã to move between multiple normative regimes while sustaining a fragile presence on their land.

Brazil-Paraguay border · Drug trafficking · Frontier · Illegality · illicit economies · indigenous leadership · Indigenous peoples · Kaiowá · Precarity · soybean agribusiness · state withdrawal · territorial permanence · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Indigenous Cultures and History

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access