ABSTRACT
Political ecology analyzes socio-environmental conflicts as dependent on changes in social metabolism. Social metabolism refers to energy and material exchanges between nature and the socioeconomic environment. The socioeconomic environment is determined by the relationship between the different metabolic actors: governments that have accepted being mere suppliers of raw materials for the needs of the Northern and Eastern industries; companies that gild their image and create lobbies; populations that resist land grabbing, destruction and the production of waste that affects their lives. Governments try to impose extractive projects through a legal arsenal. When they confront resistant populations, mostly Indigenous peoples, they use repression that causes many deaths and injuries. In the case of Peru, I explain the reasons of this violence in the historical construction of coloniality. In this chapter I will analyze the relationship between social metabolism, violence, and coloniality.
