Description
Governments increasingly adopting militarised strategies to address environmental degradation (Corredor-Garcia & López Vega, 2023), a phenomenon that has been referred to as “green militarisation” (Lunstrum, 2014). The existing literature benefited from extensive fieldwork in Asia (Barbora, 2017; Dwyer et al, 2015) and Africa (Massé and Lunstrum, 2016; Massé et al., 2017b; Witter and Satterfield, 2018). Notably, the context of the Amazon Basin has been largely ignored (Corredor- Garcia & López Vega, 2023). This analysis uses a case study design to explore the discursive production of green militarization in the case of Operation Mercury, undertaken by the Peruvian government in the region of La Pampa, where mining is strictly prohibited (Dethier et al, 2023). How did the Peruvian government justify adopting Operation Mercury to address environmental degradation produced by illegal gold mining? To respond to this question, this study employs discourse analysis as its primary research technique. Data was collected from public addresses by Peruvian government officials involved in Operation Mercury, covering its two-year period. The findings suggest that militarised interventions can be justified as tools not only to combat environmental degradation or associated crimes but also to reassert state authority, especially in regions where governance is weak.