Source: Resource Center of the Americas
November 22, 2005
On November 22, more than 800 families from communities affected by dam construction in the Uruguay River basin staged a protest at an intersection on the border between Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states in southern Brazil. The protesters are campesinos affected by the Foz do Chapecó, Monjolinho, Itapiranga and Campos Novos dam projects; the mobilization was organized by the Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB), working jointly with the Movement of Small Farmers (MPA) and the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST). The protesters want a meeting with Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy; they are demanding that the government provide compensation for their lost homes and agricultural land, and provide new land, housing, credits and reduced energy bills. They are also demanding protection for the environment and an end to privatization.
According to MAB coordinator José Mauro Bremm, more than 3,500 families from 15 different municipalities will be displaced by the construction of the Foz do Chapecó dam. The families are living in uncertainty, since the project could begin at any moment and neither the government nor the Foz do Chapecó Energy Consortium have offered any kind of guarantees for their safe relocation or compensation. Members of the dam-affected communities have been camped out in Alpestre, Rio Grande do Sul, for the past six months; they began a second encampment in Nonoai, also in Rio Grande do Sul, in October. They say they will not allow the dam to be built. (Adital (Brazil) 11/23/05)
