Update From the Amazon: No Consultation, No Construction! 31st May

Indige­nous pro­test­ers are once again occu­py­ing the con­struc­tion site of the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazil­ian Ama­zon to shed light on how hydro­elec­tric mega-dams cause seri­ous envi­ron­men­tal and social impacts and destroy the way of life of the region’s peo­ples and tra­di­tion­al com­mu­ni­ties. For exam­ple, the con­struc­tion of Belo Monte will cause 100 km (60 miles) of the Xin­gu to dry out on the river’s Big Bend if com­plet­ed. In the case of the hydro­elec­tric dams planned for the Tapa­jós Riv­er, the ancient river­side vil­lages of the Mundurukú peo­ple would be com­plete­ly flood­ed.

This is the sec­ond occu­pa­tion of Belo Monte’s con­struc­tion site in less than a month. On May 2nd the indige­nous pro­tes­tors occu­pied the same work camp and stayed there for eight days. They left the last occu­pa­tion peace­ful­ly because the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment ensured that there would be a nego­ti­a­tion, which did not hap­pen. In this case the pro­tes­tors guar­an­tee that they will main­tain their occu­pa­tion until rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment talk with them and meet their demands.

Indige­nous peo­ple also crit­i­cize the pres­ence of the military’s Nation­al Force in the region in order to ensure safe­ty of teams car­ry­ing out envi­ron­men­tal impact stud­ies for dams on the Tapa­jós Riv­er.

In addi­tion to the police offi­cers who were already housed with­in the con­struc­tion site to ensure the pro­tec­tion of Belo Monte, oth­er con­tin­gents of police have been arriv­ing at the occu­pa­tion site.

See the lat­est let­ter from the occu­pa­tion below:

Let­ter No. 7: Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment, we have returned

We are indige­nous Munduruku, Xipaya, Kayapo, Arara and Tupinam­bá peo­ple. We live in the riv­er and the for­est and we are opposed to the destruc­tion of both. You already know us, but now we are more.

You (the Gov­ern­ment) said that if we left the con­struc­tion sites of Belo Monte, we would be heard. We left peace­ful­ly – and pre­vent­ed you from the shame of using force to take us out of here. How­ev­er we were not heard. The gov­ern­ment did not receive us. We called Min­is­ter Gilber­to Car­val­ho and he did not come.

Wait­ing and call­ing did not work for us. So we again occu­pied your con­struc­tion sites. We didn’t want to be back in your desert of holes and con­crete. We have no plea­sure in leav­ing our homes and our lands to hang our ham­mocks in your build­ings. But how not to come when that could mean we los­ing our lands?

We want the sus­pen­sion of stud­ies and the con­struc­tion of dams that flood our ter­ri­to­ries, cut the for­est down the mid­dle, kill the fish and scare the ani­mals, and open the riv­er and the land to the devour­ing min­ers. That will bring more com­pa­nies, more log­gers, more con­flicts, more pros­ti­tu­tion, more drugs, more dis­eases, more vio­lence.

We require that you con­sult us about this con­struc­tion before it begins, because it is our right guar­an­teed by the Brazil­ian Con­sti­tu­tion and inter­na­tion­al treaties. This right was dis­re­spect­ed here in Belo Monte, on the Teles Pires Riv­er, and it’s not being com­plied with on the Tapa­jós Riv­er as well. It is not pos­si­ble that all of you will con­tin­ue repeat­ing that indige­nous peo­ple were con­sult­ed. Every­one knows that this is not true.

From now on, YOU (the Gov­ern­ment) has to stop telling lies in press releas­es and inter­views. You need to stop treat­ing us like chil­dren: naive, irre­spon­si­ble, and manip­u­la­tive. We are indige­nous peo­ple and you need to deal with it. You also need to stop lying to the press that we are fight­ing with the work­ers: they are sym­pa­thet­ic to our cause! We wrote a let­ter to them yes­ter­day! Here at the con­struc­tion sites we played soc­cer togeth­er every day dur­ing the last occu­pa­tion. When we left, a work­er to whom we gave many neck­laces and bracelets told us: “I’ll miss you.”

We have the sup­port of many rel­a­tives in this fight. We have the sup­port of all the indige­nous peo­ple from the Xin­gu. We have the sup­port of the Kayapo. We have the sup­port of the Tupinam­bá;  the Gua­ja­jara; the Apina­jé; Xer­ente; Krahô, Kara­ja; Xam­bioá-Tapuia; Krahô-Kanela; Avá-Canoero; javaé Kanela from Tocan­tins and Guarani. And the list is grow­ing. We have the sup­port of the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al soci­ety even though that both­ers you – you are alone with your cam­paign donors and com­pa­nies inter­est­ed in craters and mon­ey.

We occu­pied your con­struc­tion sites again – and how many times will we need to do this until your own law is respect­ed? How many restrain­ing orders, fees, pos­s­e­sion orders will cost you until you hear us? How many rub­ber bul­lets, bombs and pep­per sprays do you plan to spend until you admit that you are wrong? Or will you kill again? How many indige­nous will you kill besides our rel­a­tive Munduruku, from the Teles Pires, sim­ply because we do not want dams?

And do not send the Nation­al Force to nego­ti­ate for you. Come your­selves. We want Dil­ma to come talk to us.