Queer Perspectives on Indebtedness and Financial Extractivism in Latin America and the Caribbean

Since the 1980s debt crisis in Latin America, feminist and anti-patriarchal voices rose to point out how sovereign debt burdens disproportionately impact Indigenous, migrant, and poor women and LGBTQI+ persons. They have critiqued states, international financial institutions, and private creditors for exacerbating inequalities and violating human rights. This commentary explores intersectional analyses of structural adjustment and microcredit, focusing on the feminist politicization of debt in Latin America and the Caribbean. It examines how queer and trans authors and activists reveal the links between debt and violence against marginalized and vulnerable communities. By situating these contributions within recent debates on debt crises, social reproduction, economic justice, and queer well-being in the Global South, this contribution opens new research avenues, proposing that debt should be understood not only as a financial mechanism but also as a pivotal point where capitalist and patriarchal systems intersect.