Brazil: Kayapo blockade heads into second month

May 23, 2010

It’s been exact­ly one month to the day since a group of Kayapo set up a fer­ry block­ade across the Xin­gu Riv­er in an ongo­ing protest against the con­tro­ver­sial Belo Monte hydro dam.

The Kayapo were dis­patched to the site on April 22, the same day Brazil’s gov­ern­ment grant­ed out rights to build the dam

Sad­ly, the effort has received lit­tle media cov­er­age since then, even with a con­stant ref­er­ence to celebri­ty activists Sting and James Cameron.

Nev­er­the­less, as the front line effort heads into its sec­ond month, the Kayapo warn that they have no inten­tion of back­ing down unless the gov­ern­ment can­cels the project.

The Kayapo Continue Blockades in Protest of the Belo Monte Dam

by Inter­na­tion­al Rivers and Ama­zon Watch

For Imme­di­ate Release
May 21, 2010

The Kayapo Continue Blockades of Amazon Highway for the 28th Straight Day in Protest of the Belo Monte Dam
Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples Vow to Block Dam Construction or “Die Fighting for our Rights”

Piaraçu, Xin­gu Nation­al Park, Brazil — A group of Kayapo indige­nous peo­ple led by Chief Megaron Txukar­ramãe have been blockad­ing the Xin­gu Riv­er cross­ing of the BR-80 — a major Ama­zon high­way in Mato Grosso State — since April 23 in protest of the gov­ern­men­t’s plans to build the mas­sive Belo Monte Dam. Dozens of Kayapo war­riors have been block­ing the fer­ry cross­ing over the Xin­gu Riv­er for four weeks and are deter­mined to remain there. Their actions have dis­rupt­ed a major trans­porta­tion artery for com­mer­cial goods in the region.

In a state­ment issued from the block­ade, Chief Megaron referred to Pres­i­dent Lula as “ene­my num­ber one” to Brazil’s indige­nous peo­ples, and vowed to main­tain the block­ade until Belo Monte is can­celed or “die fight­ing for our rights.”

Chief Megaron has been joined in these protests by Kayapo Chief Raoni Metuk­tire, an emblem­at­ic leader for over 20 years of indige­nous resis­tance to the Brazil­ian gov­ern­men­t’s plans to dam the Xin­gu Riv­er. In a May 1st inter­view with the French chan­nel TF1, Chief Raoni said “I have asked my war­riors to pre­pare for war and I have spo­ken of this with oth­er tribes from the Upper Xin­gu. We will not let them [build this dam].”

Lead­ers of the Arara, Xipa­ia and Juruna indige­nous peo­ples of the Low­er Xin­gu echo the vocif­er­ous oppo­si­tion of the Kayapo to the Belo Monte Dam, and have also vowed to lay down their lives to stop the project, which would destroy their com­mu­ni­ties and liveli­hoods. “We are firm in this strug­gle, and con­tin­ue more strong and deter­mined than ever to stop Belo Monte,” said the leader Shey­la Juruna. Attempts to stop the Belo Monte Dam became known around the world last month when film­mak­er James Cameron and mem­bers of the cast of Avatar joined protests in Brasil­ia and vis­it­ed vil­lages on the Xin­gu Riv­er and its trib­u­taries to hear about the plight of the region’s indige­nous peo­ple.

Slat­ed to be the 3rd largest hydro­elec­tric project in the world, Belo Monte would divert over 80 per­cent of the Xin­gu River’s flow through arti­fi­cial canals, flood­ing over 500 sq km of rain­for­est while dry­ing out a 100 km stretch of the riv­er known as the “Big Bend,” which is home to hun­dreds of indige­nous and river­ine fam­i­lies. Though sold to the pub­lic as “clean ener­gy,” Belo Monte would gen­er­ate an enor­mous amount of methane, a green­house gas 20 times more potent than car­bon diox­ide.

Despite legal injunc­tions against the pro­jec­t’s auc­tion, the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment announced that the auc­tion’s win­ning con­sor­tium, “Norte Ener­gia,” would pro­ceed with plans to dam the Xin­gu Riv­er. Pres­i­dent Lula’s insis­tence that the project move for­ward at all costs — in spite of seri­ous social, envi­ron­men­tal and finan­cial con­cerns, as well as a mas­sive local and inter­na­tion­al out­cry — con­tin­ues to be met with fierce denounce­ments from indige­nous peo­ple of the Xin­gu Basin.

“The destruc­tion that would be caused by the mas­sive Belo Monte Dam in the glob­al­ly essen­tial Ama­zon Basin would have world­wide ram­i­fi­ca­tions that can’t yet be ful­ly com­pre­hend­ed. Indige­nous peo­ple are deter­mined to dis­rupt the ‘busi­ness as usu­al’ mod­el of destruc­tive devel­op­ment projects that ruin the envi­ron­ment and their tra­di­tion­al ways of life,” said Atossa Soltani of Ama­zon Watch. “Indige­nous groups from the Xin­gu Basin have sent the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment a clear and resound­ing mes­sage that they will not allow the Belo Monte Dam to move for­ward. A Brazil­ian and inter­na­tion­al coali­tion of orga­ni­za­tions and social move­ments stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with these groups, and is mobi­liz­ing fur­ther social and legal actions.”