[Aztlan] Belo Monte

[Rene Hauron]

Rio de Janeiro, 3 nov (EFE) .-
Brazilian Indians from 14 ethnic groups today threatened to take actions
"warriors" and kill the workers if the Government starts work on the
hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte, which will be auctioned in December.

"We demand that the government cancel the final implementation of this
power. If you decide to start the construction of Belo Monte, there will be
a warrior action of indigenous peoples of the Xingu," said a letter sent
today by the Indians to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The authors of the letter warned that, with these actions, "the lives of
workers and indigenous people is at risk" and argued that the responsibility
of the victims will fall on the Federal Government.

The first protest action, taken today and no completion date was the
blocking of a ferry used to cross the river Xingu in an area where a road
cuts off a region of Mato Grosso on the edge of the Amazon.

The letter, signed by 212 tribal leaders, denounced the project of Belo
Monte will bring "irreversible consequences" for the region, which is a
"violation of the rights of the ancestors of the river."

Belo Monte to be built up to the municipality of Altamira, Pará, will have a
capacity of 11,233 megawatts and will be the second largest in the country,
behind the museum, which Brazil shares with Paraguay.

The dam would flood an area of jungle near 440 kilometers square, which
directly and indirectly affect 66 municipalities and 11 indigenous lands,
forcing the displacement of tens of thousands of riparian whose homes will
be flooded, according to construction plans.

The Government marked the bidding for the plant December 21, and is
estimated to require investments of about $ 16 billion.

The project of Belo Monte was born in the 1970s, but was blocked at the time
by the resistance of environmental groups and indigenous peoples.

Since then, the project has undergone structural reforms to reduce the
flooded area in the heart of the Amazon forest, and allow passage of fish
through the construction of canals.

In May 2008, a group of Indians injured an employee Eletrobrás during a
seminar offered to coastal communities of the Xingu to explain the impacts
of the dam. EFE

-- 
René Haurón (Edgardo S Dal Molin)

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