Outside my window, the rain falls in buckets. Saint Peter, chief of the heavens must be heeding the prayers of the druids of Brazil´s Mines and Energy Ministry, who labor tirelessly to prevent the country´s power grid from falling victim to blackouts, as it did in 2001-2002.
Preparations are heating up for the opening of the Xingu Indigenous Gathering. Buses arrive every hour from distant towns such as Redenção, Tucumã, and Colíder, bringing indigenous families to Altamira, to discuss the future of the Xingu Basin.
I spend the early part of the afternoon talking with leaders of the Xikrin indigenous group, who have been approached by Brazilian state electric company Eletrobrás to "accept" the Belo Monte Dam project. We talk awhile and it becomes clear that the company has never mentioned the impacts the world's third largest dam would have on their land and resources, drying out the Bacajá, affecting water quality and quantity, fish stocks, and the health of the Xikrin.
The Real News interviews Glenn Switkes and Amazon Indigenous Indian protesters who say the social and environmental costs of the Belo Monte dam, the world's third largest proposed dam, will destroy their way of life and wreck the Xingu river's ecosystem.
Sonia Legg of Reuters reports on the angry reaction from environmentalists and tribal Indians to Brazilian plans to build a hydro-electric complex on the Xingu River.
Yesterday´s announcement that José Antônio Muniz Lopes will be the new president of Brazil´s state electric holding company Eletrobrás has caused tremors in the villages of indigenous people living along the rivers of Amazonia. Muniz, despite his long experience as an engineer for Brazilian state electric companies, is best known as having received a close shave by the Kayapó woman warrior, Tuíra, at the 1989 Altamira gathering protesting dams on the Xingu.
Shock. Despair. I was on the panel discussing the impacts of Belo Monte Dam, when about eight Kayapó Indians incensed at the defense of the project by state company Eletrobrás' project manager, Paulo Fernando Rezende who had been invited to the encounter, suddenly rushed him. They threw him to the ground about ten feet from me. Chanting and waving machetes, the Kayapó pushed NGO leaders raising their hands and calling for calm out of the way, and in the scuffle, Rezende emerged with a cut on his shoulder. He was treated at the Transamazon Hospital and released later in the evening.
Julie McCarthy, NPR’s South American correspondent filed this in-depth, detailed and evocative feature
about the struggle of the Amazonian Indians to stop the damming of the
Xingu River. Her eyewitness report on the Xingu Encounter aired May 31
on Weekend Edition—NPR’s most widely listened to show.
Seeing him waving the "V' for victory sign yesterday, and hearing him thank divine justice for his acquittal on appeal after initially being convicted and sentenced to 30 years, rancher Vitalmiro de Moura Bastos, or "Bida" reminded me of the killers of civil rights workers in the South who smirked when were absolved for their crimes. But, this is the Amazon, not the South, and it´s 2008. And, the murder Bida was absolved of was that of an American nun, Dorothy Stang, rather than a Black youth who dared to assert his rights.
In characteristic heavy-handed fashion, Brazil´s electricity
bureaucracy last week went through the motions of assuring the public and environmental licensing authorities that Belo Monte will be
stand-alone dam on the Xingu River. In attempting to explain the
decision, Jerson Kelman, Director-General of the electrical energy
regulatory body, ANEEL, said "Technically, there´s no reason not to
build other dams (on the river)". Kelman termed the decision
"political", designed to satisfy those who want the dam. "It´s a
typical case of giving up your rings to keep your fingers", he said.
(Ouch!)
Altamira quiet before the start of the Encounter (Glenn Switkes)
Today, one thousand Brazilian Amazon Indians and their allies begin a five-day protest of proposed hydroelectric dams for the Xingu River, in the Brazilian Amazon. This will be the largest indigenous gathering in the Amazon in nearly twenty years, and the collaborating groups are poised to prevent further development of the Belo Monte Dam, which, if constructed and put to use, would severely impact more than 500 indigenous people on the Xingu and Bacajá rivers, and would displace more than 16,000 people. In all probability, the highly inefficient dam would require building additional dams upstream, affecting thousands of Indians. The gathering will take place from May 19th to May 23rd in the city of Altamira, Pará.
In characteristic heavy-handed fashion, Brazil´s electricity
bureaucracy last week went through the motions of assuring the public and environmental licensing authorities that Belo Monte will be
stand-alone dam on the Xingu River. In attempting to explain the
decision, Jerson Kelman, Director-General of the electrical energy
regulatory body, ANEEL, said "Technically, there´s no reason not to
build other dams (on the river)". Kelman termed the decision
"political", designed to satisfy those who want the dam. "It´s a
typical case of giving up your rings to keep your fingers", he said.
(Ouch!)
