Neo-extractivism and Energy Transition in Latin America: Territorial Disputes and the Reconfiguration of Relations among State, Capital and Communities (2003-2025)

Abstract

The global energy transition has reopened the debate on neo-extractivism in Latin America and its territorial effects. This article aims to analyze the continuities and ruptures of Latin American neo-extractivism in relation to the demands of the energy transition during the period 2003-2025. To this end, a qualitative strategy was developed based on documentary analysis, structured literature review, and triangulation of archival sources, institutional reports, and academic literature indexed in Scopus and SciELO. The results made it possible to identify three main processes: the consolidation of a neo-extractivist pattern associated with economic reprimarization; the emergence of green extractivism, driven by global demand for lithium, copper, niobium, rare earth elements, and unconventional gas; and the reconfiguration of territorial conflicts in which Indigenous communities, quilombola communities, and socio-environmental movements dispute control over resources with states and corporations. It concludes that the energy transition has not overcome neo-extractivism, but has reconfigured it through environmental legitimation, reproducing territorial inequalities, forms of dispossession, and tensions between global decarbonization discourses and local impacts.