Indigenous Peoples Stop Dam Construction With New Occupation at Belo Monte Site 2nd May

Altami­ra, Brazil – Some 200 indige­nous peo­ple affect­ed by the con­struc­tion of large hydro­elec­tric dams in the Ama­zon launched an occu­pa­tion today on one of the main con­struc­tion sites of the Belo Monte dam com­plex on the Xin­gu Riv­er in the Brazil­ian Ama­zon. The group demands that the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment adopt effec­tive leg­is­la­tion on pri­or con­sul­ta­tions with indige­nous peo­ples regard­ing projects that affect their lands and liveli­hoods. As this has not hap­pened, they are demand­ing the imme­di­ate sus­pen­sion of con­struc­tion, tech­ni­cal stud­ies and police oper­a­tions relat­ed to dams along the Xin­gu, Tapa­jos and Teles Pires rivers. Shock troops of the mil­i­tary police were await­ing indige­nous pro­tes­tors when they arrived at the Belo Monte dam site, but they were unable to impede the occu­pa­tion.

The indige­nous pro­tes­tors include mem­bers of the Juruna, Kayapó, Xipaya, Kuru­aya, Asuri­ni, Parakanã, Arara tribes from the Xin­gu Riv­er, as well as war­riors of the Munduruku, a large tribe from the neigh­bor­ing Tapa­jós riv­er basin. The indige­nous peo­ples are joined by fish­er­men and local river­ine com­mu­ni­ties from the Xin­gu region. Ini­tial reports indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly 6,000 work­ers at one of the main Belo Monte con­struc­tion sites, Pimen­tal, have ceased oper­a­tions as a result of the protest. The occu­pa­tion, accord­ing to the indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, will con­tin­ue indef­i­nite­ly or until the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment meets their demands.

 

Indige­nous peo­ples of the Xin­gu and Tapa­jós released this state­ment [Eng­lish trans­la­tion]:

We are the peo­ple who live in the rivers where you want to build dams. We
are the Munduruku, Juruna, Kayapo, Xipaya, Kuru­aya, Asuri­ni, Parakanã, Arara,
fish­er­men and peo­ples who live in river­ine com­mu­ni­ties. We are Ama­zon­ian
peo­ples and we want the for­est to stand. We are Brazil­ians. The riv­er and the
for­est are our super­mar­ket. Our ances­tors are old­er than Jesus Christ.
 
You are point­ing guns at our heads. You raid our ter­ri­to­ries with war trucks
and sol­diers. You have made the fish dis­ap­pear and you are rob­bing the
bones of our ances­tors who are buried on our lands.
 
You do this because you are afraid to lis­ten to us. You are afraid to hear that
we don’t want dams on our rivers, and afraid to under­stand why we don’t
want them.
 
You invent sto­ries that we are vio­lent and that we want war. Who are the
ones killing our rel­a­tives? How many white peo­ple have died in com­par­i­son to
how many Indige­nous peo­ple have died? You are the ones killing us, quick­ly
or slow­ly. We’re dying and with each dam that is built, more of us will die.
When we try to talk with you, you bring tanks, heli­copters, sol­diers,
machine­guns and stun weapons.

What we want is sim­ple: You need to uphold the law and pro­mote enact­ing
leg­is­la­tion on free, pri­or and informed con­sent for indige­nous peo­ples. Until
that hap­pens you need to stop all con­struc­tion, stud­ies, and police oper­a­tions
in the Xin­gu, Tapa­jos and Teles Pires rivers. And then you need to con­sult us.
 
We want dia­logue, but you are not let­ting us speak. This is why we are
occu­py­ing your dam-build­ing site. You need to stop every­thing and sim­ply
lis­ten to us.

Occu­pa­tions against the Belo Monte dam com­plex and mobi­liza­tions against oth­er Ama­zon­ian dams have become increas­ing­ly com­mon­place. Con­struc­tion on Belo Monte has been halt­ed on at least sev­en occa­sions over the last year due to the efforts of affect­ed indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and fish­er­men to call atten­tion to the fail­ures of the Norte Ener­gia dam build­ing con­sor­tium and gov­ern­ment agen­cies to com­ply with the project’s man­dat­ed envi­ron­men­tal and social con­di­tions. On March 21st, approx­i­mate­ly 100 indige­nous peo­ples, river­bank dwellers (ribeir­in­hos) and small farm­ers expelled dam work­ers and occu­pied the Pimen­tal site, main­tained by the Belo Monte Con­struc­tion Con­sor­tium (CCBM). Addi­tion­al­ly, recent strikes and protests by dam work­ers have cre­at­ed addi­tion­al unrest at CCBM con­struc­tion sites.

The Munduruku indige­nous peo­ple and oth­er local com­mu­ni­ties have mobi­lized against a cas­cade of over a dozen large dams slat­ed for con­struc­tion on the neigh­bor­ing Tapa­jós riv­er and its major trib­u­taries, the Teles Pires, Juru­e­na and Jamanx­im. One of the first major dams under con­struc­tion, UHE Teles Pires, has been the sub­ject of law­suits by Fed­er­al Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tors for lack of pri­or con­sul­ta­tions with the Kayabi, Api­aká and Munduruku indige­nous peo­ples. In recent weeks, the removal of funer­al urns of the Munduruku peo­ple by dam con­trac­tors at the Sete Quedas rapids, con­sid­ered a sacred site for indige­nous tribes, pro­voked out­rage.

Last March Pres­i­dent Dil­ma Rouss­eff signed Decree no. 7957/2013 allow­ing the use of the Nation­al Guard and oth­er armed forces to ensure that dam con­struc­tion at places like Belo Monte and tech­ni­cal stud­ies for planned Ama­zon­ian dams are not inter­rupt­ed by indige­nous pro­tes­tors. In April, upon a request of the Min­istry of Mines and Ener­gy, approx­i­mate­ly 250 fed­er­al and mil­i­tary police troops were dis­patched to the Tapa­jós region to ensure con­tin­u­a­tion of tech­ni­cal stud­ies for the first two large dams sched­uled for con­struc­tion, São Luiz do Tapa­jós and Jato­bá. The mil­i­tary oper­a­tion came in response to protests from the Munduruku peo­ple, whose tra­di­tion­al lands would be direct­ly affect­ed by the two large dams and who have suf­fered from a his­to­ry of mil­i­tary oper­a­tions on their lands.

“Today’s protest demon­strates the relent­less resis­tance of a grow­ing group of unit­ed peo­ples against Belo Monte, Tapa­jós and oth­er destruc­tive dams through­out the Ama­zon,” said Leila Salazar-Lopez, Ama­zon Watch Pro­gram Direc­tor. “These are the final moments to change course as con­struc­tion clos­es in on the Xin­gu and oth­er life­line rivers of the Ama­zon.”