In recent analyses of state–corporate crime, a number of scholars have underlined the need to reintroduce a more complex understanding of the state. The shift in understanding proposed in this body of work represents a displacement of the focus from the “moment of rupture” towards a more comprehensive role of the state in which we can capture its enabling role. Developing this perspective, the paper analyses Spanish company Repsol’s oil spill on the Peruvian coast and develops a detailed study of states involved in colonial crimes. Crucially, this paper presents this state–corporate crime as the outcome of a long series of decisions taken between Spain and Peru. The sale of the La Pampilla Refinery to Repsol by the Fujimori government allowed a colonial cycle of capital accumulation to intensify. This expansionist cycle by Spanish financial capital established the conditions that made the incident on the Peruvian shore possible. Overall, the paper describes those conditions in detail and argues that without considering this long-term political and economic interaction between Spanish capital and both states, state–corporate crimes cannot be fully understood. The notion of “colonial regime of permission” is proposed to capture the process of accumulation which enables wealth creation in Spain and the destruction of nature in Peru.
Ignasi Bernat (Thu,) studied this question.