From ecological catastrophe to constitutional crisis: the long struggle over the Xingu dams comes to a climax at Belo Monte.

• Author: Turner, Terence
• Position: Scrambling for What's Left

Once again, the indigenous peoples of the Xingu valley in the Brazilian Amazon are planning to make the long journey to the town of Altamira, where the Trans-Amazonica highway crosses the Xingu. Their ultimate destination will be the island of Pimental a short distance downriver from the town, where the Brazilian government plans to build a huge hydroelectric dam they call Belo Monte after the nearest Brazilian village. The Indians' bold plan is to prevent the construction of the dam by building a new village directly on top of the proposed dam site and maintaining their occupation until the government abandons its plans for the dam. The planning for the encampment is being led by the Kayapo, the largest and most politically organized of the indigenous nations of the region, but other indigenous groups are also participating.

The Kayapo, however, are not waiting for the discussion of the plan for the encampment among the 23 indigenous groups of the Xingu Valley to reach consensus. They have already seized the ferry that carries Brazil Route 80, an important link in the Trans-Amazonica highway system, across the Xingu River at the Kayapo village of Piaracu. The ferry and the river crossing are now under guard by armed Kayapo warriors, who have announced that they will continue their blockade until the government negotiates with them about their plans for the Belo Monte dam.

This will not be the first indigenous encampment organized by the Kayapo in their effort to stop the building of dams on the Xingu. In 1989, when the government first set out to implement its plan for a giant hydroelectric complex on the Xingu with financial support from the World Bank, the Kayapo led a great rally of 40 indigenous nations at Altamira against the scheme, setting up an encampment of several hundred Indians at a Catholic retreat center just outside the town. The five-day rally was extensively covered by national and international media, and succeeded in persuading the World Bank to withdraw its planned loan for the construction of the dams.

After the 1989 Altamira meeting, the Xingu dam scheme remained dormant, but not dead, for two decades. Two years ago it was revived as the centerpiece of the Lula government's Project for Accelerated Development. As a Brazilian activist remarked at the time, "These big dams are like vampires: you pound a stake through their hearts but they rise again from the grave and you have to do it all over again."

The Xingu River is one of the major tributaries of the Amazon. With its numerous affluents it has created a valley larger than Texas that remains perhaps the least disturbed and most diverse ecosystem in Brazilian Amazonia. It is unquestionably the most culturally diverse; 23 indigenous peoples of distinct cultures and languages make their homes there, most of them among the headwaters of the Upper Xingu, which has been made a national park by the Brazilian state. In the Middle Xingu region just to the north (downriver) of the National Park, the large and politically dynamic Kayapo people have their territory, consisting of seven...