A powerful apparatus of repression, which consisted of the National Force, the Shock Troops and military police prevented the protest of some 400 riverine people, small scale farmers, students and professors opposed to the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam gathered for the arrival of President Lula this week in Altamira (PA).

The representative of the federal government, Geraldo Magela (collaborator with the minister Luis Dulci, the Secretary General), was at the head of the police force that  blocked the protesters access to the stadium where Lula spoke to the people. Social leaders were shut out, there was revised personnel and seizure of brochures or any material in opposition to Belo Monte.

In addition to being prevented from taking their demands to the president, those threatened by the plant were publicly humiliated, infantilized and called ignorant. Seeking to compare himself to them, Lula said that in his youth, he believed in nonsense like earthquakes, change to the climate or the axis of the planet, caused by the Itaipu hydroelectric plant. "If they [the protesters] had the patience to listen",  Lula said … If he had this patience, he would know that the fears of the population of the Xingu are not fantasies. They are the real fears of those who are threatened by destruction of their home, their lifestyle, their sources of livelihood, and all the immeasurable beauty that makes life worth living in the Xingu.

Blinded by indifference, the president did not see that the faces of those who tried to be heard were white, brown, black, creased, sunburned and sweaty with the heat that bothered him so much. There were no "gringos" as Lula said in his next stop, in Maraba.

"We need to show the world that no one other than us will take care of our forests," Lula said. We? The government, which creates projects that destroy and attract destruction of  the forest? No, we are those who know how to take care of the forest, those who are desperately trying to make ourselves heard. We are those who historically take care of nature, because it is all we have.

Lula spoke of  R$4 billion "to care for the riverine people" . This should cause us to rejoice? You must pay for the destruction of our lives and the lives of future generations? We should celebrate and be silent?

This week in Pará, there was room for only one voice, arrogant, indifferent and dominating. Lula, the federal government and state government, which has not yet deigned to hear the appeal of those endangered by Belo Monte, again ignored and turned their backs on the riverine peoples, farmers and residents of the stilt houses of Altamira, and their fears and dreams. Again, despite the anticipation and anxiety to be heard, these citizens had the door slammed in their faces.

 

Altamira, 23 June of 2010

 

The Movement Xingu for Alive Forever, Via Campasina, Movement for Peoples Affected by Dams (MAB), Indigenist Missionary Counsel (Cimi), Pastoral da Terra, PJR, FEAB, ABEEF, MMCC, UJS, Peoples Consultants, DA-UFPA, PJ, SINTEPP, Black Movement – CFNTX, Childrens Pastoral, Popular Forum, SOS Vida