Bureaucratic Colonialism and Ethnic Recognition in LatinAmerica Institutional Obstacles to the Self-Determination ofTraditional Peoples in Brazil and Colombia

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of Brazil and Colombia’s ethnic recognition mechanisms, examining if these procedures, designed to protect collective rights, reproduce colonial administrative structures over indigenous peoples. The analysis starts with the idea that the bureaucratic models of identity validation used by both states are tied to Eurocentric rationalities, which give more importance to external institutional legitimation than to collective self-determination. This goes against the international paradigm of self-identification
written in Convention No. 169 of the International Labor Organization. The study uses a qualitative, exploratory-analytical approach with a deductive method and comparative analysis through literature review, documentary analysis, and examination of the current ethnic recognition regimes in both countries. This study draws on the Latin American decolonial theories—particularly those on coloniality of power—to examine how state bureaucracy, far from being a neutral mechanism of public administration, can function, under certain circumstances, as a contemporary technology of control over subalternized identities. It concludes that formal requirements for certification, accreditation, validation, and endorsement can undermine the effectiveness of traditional peoples’ right to self-determination, reinforcing structural asymmetries incompatible with international human rights. Finally, it argues that institutional models of recognition must be changed to align more with legal pluralism, self-identification, and less bureaucracy.