AP PHOTO
Xingo River Indians Confront
Brazil's Power Giant's Plan
[NOTE: Don't miss the videos below.]
[UPDATE: 2008-05-23 04:33:40 - ALTAMIRA, Brazil (AP) - An organizer of a week-long protest against an Amazon dam project says Indians and activists have canceled Friday's demonstration march to the Xingu River on fears of spiraling violence. Marcelo Salazar says he fears counter-demonstrators might retaliate for an attack on an engineer with Brazil's national electric company.
Link to article]
By Patrick Cunningham in Altamira, Brazil
THE INDEPENDENT
Friday, 23 May 2008
The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon.
At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high.
For people living beside the river, the dam will bring an end to their way of life. Thousands of homes will be submerged and changes in the local ecology will wipe out the livelihoods of many more, killing their main food sources and destroying their raw materials.
For the 10,000 tribal indians of the Xingu, whose lives have changed little since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago, this will be a devastating blow.
"This is the second time we are fighting this battle," says Chief Bocaire, a young leader of the Kayapo, one of more than 600 Indians from 35 ethnic groups who gathered in record numbers in Altamira. The Indians had travelled hundreds of miles to get there in an area with hardly any roads. The roads that do exist are mostly dirt tracks, impassable in bad weather and difficult and dangerous at the best of times. For most it has been an odyssey of several weeks, traveling in small boats to reach the roads.
"In 1989, our parents defeated a similar proposal with the help of the international media. Now it is back. But we are ready to fight again. This time we speak their language, and we are more determined than ever," says Chief Bocaire.
With so much at stake, tensions spilled over into violence this week when an engineer from the power company Eletrobras was caught up in a melee with Indians wielding machetes. Paulo Fernando Rezende had his shirt ripped from him and was left with a deep cut to his shoulder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VIDEO FROM GLOBO 5-21-2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE FROM GLOBO 5-22-2008
(rough translation) Federal Police investigate images where one of the organizers of the event, in which an engineer of Eletrobrás was attacked, is allegedly buying facões (machetes) and appears in the company of an Indian.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nineteen years ago, the Indians called on the support of the rock star Sting and the late Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. Pictures of the pair alongside Chief Raoni, with his lower lip distended by a traditional lip plate, sent their message to the outside world.
The reservoir will flood up to 6,140 square kilometres (2,371 square miles). Scientists say it will cause a dramatic increase in greenhouse-gas emissions. from the decomposition of organic matter in the stagnant water of the reservoir.
"Hydroelectric dams have severe social impacts," Philip Fearnside, one of the world's leading rainforest scientists explains, "including flooding the lands of indigenous peoples, displacing non-indigenous residents and destroying fisheries."
Dr Fearnside said the project helps aluminium plants looking to cash in on exports but does little for local needs, and in fact increases the health risks to local populations, including malaria.
For three months in the dry season, the flow of the Xingu reduces to a trickle and the dam's turbines will stop working, unable to maintain the supply of power and necessitating the use of inefficient fossil-fuel power stations.
Last November, Chief Bocaire delivered a letter to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Signed by 78 leaders, the letter demanded that all dam be halted.
But Glenn Switkes, of International Rivers, says: "The Lula government and its political allies are closing ranks to ensure it goes ahead no matter what the cost. The construction cost could be more than £5bn, and Belo Monte will not be feasible without building other dams upstream to regulate the flow of the Xingu – and that means facing off with the Kayapo."
[FINAL UPDATE: It's too bad that the media diverted so much attention to the "violence" (which even the engineer seemed to downplay) but, fortunately, it seems to have all ended peacefully with a ritual swim in Xingu River and the world has surely heard from the Indians. Here is the report from AP.]
Another Video arrived today (25 May 2008) from Reuters:
And here's an
IMPORTANT RELATED ARTICLE on efforts by Brazil to limit international organizations in Amazon.
1 comment:
“Fighting for the Amazon”
ALTAMIRA, Brazil—In this sweltering urban outpost on the banks of the Xingu River, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River, a large official-looking billboard looms over one of the main streets downtown. Two hands are clenched in a friendly handshake, next to a colorful sketch of an unobtrusive dam traversing the crystalline waters of the river. “United For Progress,” it reads, “United for Belo Monte Dam.” Despite the cheerful propaganda, not everybody in town appears to be as optimistic. “Out Belo Monte!” and “Death to the Monster Dam!” are just a few of the slogans splashed as graffiti across the city that tell a very different story.
For five days at the end of May, thousands of indigenous Brazilians, riverbank dwellers, fishers and environmental and social movement activists, along with religious leaders and sympathetic local government officials, came together for the Xingu Forever Alive Encounter, a historic gathering to oppose a hydroelectric project that, as conceived, would be the third-largest dam in the world. The Brazilian government, along with a number of massive construction conglomerates, calls the dam an essential component of Brazil’s energy policy and necessary to keep the fast-growing economy humming. Activists and indigenous Brazilians call it a reckless project that will displace tens of thousands of people who depend on the river for their livelihood, will destroy migratory fish stocks and will channel energy primarily to the aluminum mines and the growing number of multinational extractive industries that are setting up shop in the Amazon.
To view the rest of this article, see http://www.indypendent.org/2008/07/17/fighting-for-the-amazon/
Post a Comment