Belo Monte: triumphant return of the military dictatorship?  http://alainet.org/active/36518

The Lula Government has undeniable merit in the social sphere. But with respect to the environment, Lula unquestionably is a person of unconsciousness and backwardness. Analyzing the Acceleration of Growth Program, (the Spanish acronym, PAC), leaves the impression that we are headed back to the XIX century. This model is being questioned all over the world because it destabilizes planet Earth as a whole. Even so, it was adopted without scruples by the PAC. The discussions with those affected, and society in general, were ridiculous.

Authoritarian logic prevailed: first the decision is made, and then a public forum to debate it is held. This is exactly what is happening with the project to build the Hydroelectric Dam of Belo Monte, in Xingu River, state of Para, Brazil.This project comes from the military dictatorship of the 1970s. Under pressure from the Indigenous peoples, backed by singer Sting in cooperation with cacique Raoni, it was shelved in 1989. Now, with a preliminary license granted on February 1st, this project of the dictatorship can return triumphant, presented by the Government as the primary work of the PAC.

This project is totally megalomaniac: it will flood 51, 600 hectares of jungle, with a 516 square kilometer mirror of water, altering the course of the river with the construction of two channels 500 meters wide and 30 kilometers long, leaving 100 kilometers of dry river bed, while submerging the most beautiful part of the Xingu, Volta Grande and a third of the Altamira, at a cost of between 17 and 30 thousand million reales, displacing nearly 20 thousand persons, and attracting nearly 80 thousand workers, to produce 11,233 Megawatts of energy in times of flood (4 months), and only 4 thousand Megawatts the rest of the year, which, finally, will be transported 5 thousand kilometers away...