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The aim of this study is to provide possibilities for a theoretical interpretation of the foundations of the criminalization of rural social movements in Brazil. To do that, it analyzes the State as a multifaceted agent, which, for an understanding of its characteristics in specific situations, may be observed through an analysis of its everyday interventions. Thus, the governance of agrarian problems and conflicts in the countryside are represented as an expression of governability and state-building. Basing ourselves on those referents, we present a history of the relations between the State and the agrarian question under different political regimes in Brazil, with an emphasis on understanding the characteristic features of the post neo-liberal period. We set forth the idea of Brazilian neo-extractivism as a particular expression of the relations between the criminalization of rural social movements and the governance of natural resources, associated with a logic of the day to day establishment of political authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]