21st Century Latin American Social Movements amid Violence in the Anthropocene

The multiple contemporary crisis social movements and activists within the Anthropocene experience have impacted its activists in Latin America, either by changing their forms of mobilization or by demobilizing activists. This paper aims to investigate the role of over-repression, that is, assassinations, in different social movements in the region, as well as its relationship with the Anthropocene. To delve into the role of repression in today's environmental, feminist, climate justice, food, landless and other movements, I focus on political assassinations. How does the focus of movements impact the possibility of their activists getting brutally killed? How do gender and social movements interact on the data of activists killed? How do rural and urban struggles are impacted differently in each country? And, finally, who are the main agents of repression? State and paramilitary actors are considered in this discussion. Drawing on a quantitative methodology, an original dataset was constructed with social movements in Latin America that have had more than two activists assassinated in the 21st century, as well as a literature review. Preliminary results point to Colombia and Brazil leading on the cases of movements more targeted, as well as a significant number of “unknowns” in the repression field, followed by paramilitary actors and hitmen.