As mentioned in Sue Branford & Thais Borges' article (Brazilian Amazon, 3 massaces in 12 days)Brazil's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) has launched a a new website: Massacres in the Countryside. That page will be updated with newly confirmed reports of massacres — a killing involving three or more people. Between 1985 and 2017, CPT...
The Amazon has seen 3 probable massacres in 12 days — likely a record for the region — as violence has exploded in areas of heavy deforestation where the building of large dams has brought a capital infusion, sent land prices soaring, and invited land speculation by land grabbers, loggers and ranchers.A ...
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend,
27
March 2019
Voices versus the new
populism
Alzira de Fátima Venâncio Barbosa, who lives by the Paraopebas River. Alzira’s income was dependent on the river, as she would fish and cook for fisherman. Photo: Rodrigo Zaim/Christian Aid
Voices of Latin
America:...
New Minister of Mines and Energy Admiral Bento Albuquerque announced on 4 March that he plans to permit mining on indigenous lands in Brazil, including within the Amazon. He also said that he intends to allow mining right up to Brazil’s borders, abolishing the current ban along a 150-kilometer (93-mile)-wide swath at ...
The Brazilian state of Roraima is currently dependent for 70 percent of its power on Venezuela’s Guri hydroelectric dam. But socioeconomic chaos in Venezuela, and deteriorating political relations between the two nations, have caused Brazil to fast-track a 750-kilometer transmission line to replace the imported energy.General Otávio Rêgo de Barros, using a...
The Belo Monte dam, now under construction in the Amazon, is heralded as an abundant power source for Brazil’s burgeoning economy. But critics contend the project’s benefits are outweighed by the environmental and social costs. In a Yale Environment 360 video report, Charles Lyons explores both sides of this controversial project. Full video...
On 12 January 2014, TV Folha broadcast a special programme 'The Battle of Belo Monte' a live reporting of the largest and most controversial infrastructure project of the Lula and Dilma governments. This video is a compilation of the three sections of the programme: The Construction Site, Altamira and People Affected. In December, a 2013 a special...
As a response to the current investment in large hydroelectric dams as a foundation for Brazil's 'sustainable' economic growth, 'Costs' addresses the impacts these projects have caused on both the environment and people. Director Marilene Ribeiro surveys three hydro schemes that happen at different times in Brazil (past - the Sobradinho dam, present -...
The massive destruction of forest to make way for the Belo Monte dam and associated roads, reservoir and channels.
Video: Repórter Brasil 2015 (in Portuguese)
Drawn up without any proper consultation, or local participation, the so-called Emergency Plan was used by the developers to keep Indian people well away from the construction site. They set up offices in Altamira to dole out payments in kind, inducing the Indians to travel frequently to the city and alienating them from their traditional home environment.