18.09.2008
In Rondonia, dam affected people denounce violations of their rights
Camping in the worksite of Santo Antonio Hydroelectric Plant has been set up since last Tuesday, September 16

On the last day of the camping protest against the privatization of Madeira, people affected by the two dams, Santo Antonio and Jirau, will march from the camping site to the houses that were burned and destroyed to give space to the construction site. A protest will take place to denounce the violent displacement of local residents. The march will start at 9 in the morning, today, September 18.

The protesters will march in solidarity with the families which lost their houses and denounce that the dams on Madeira are just favouring multinational corporations wanting to extract and export the resources of the Amazon region. Riverine people started been displaced even before the emission of the Installation Licence of the dams and even before the agricultural community which is supposed to host them is constructed. For these displacements to take place, there was a lot of “discussion” between the consortium and the people of the area. Neudete, whose family lived on the same riverbank since 1913, participated in some meetings and denounces the intimidating attitude of the consortium. She affirms that “they tried to prevent riverine people to talk to each other. They advised to keep secret the amount of the compensation so that other riverine people would not be tempted to steal the money. But since when a riverine robs another? We know each other since we were born”.

BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development) which will finance 70% of the project, was supposed to be present in the camping site. However, its representatives did not appear. At the beginning of the month, a group of social movements and other entities registered a petition to the bank demanding the cancellation of credit for the construction of the plants. During the camping, protestors denounced once again the bank for handing out money from Brazilian workers to investors in big infrastructure projects like the hydroelectric plants.

According to the coordination of the camping, the struggle of the families was strengthened with this activity. Josivaldo de Oliveira from MAB regrets that “only the riverine people of Madeira, the Brazilian working class and the people of the Amazon region are going to suffer from these projects”.