ABSTRACT
In June of 2010, just 12 months before the start of construction of Belo Monte, the world’s third largest hydroelectric facility, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the Amazonian city of Altamira, Pará, the city closest to and most affected by the dam, to express his support for the facility. He addressed the project’s critics and anti-dam activists directly:
I know that what many well-intentional people… don’t want is to repeat the errors committed in this country throughout hydroelectric dam construction. We never again want a hydroelectric dam that commits the crime of insanity that was Balbina, in the state of Amazonas. We don’t want to repeat Tucurui. We want to do something new. So, let me give some advice to the comrades who are against [the dam]: instead of being against it, propose alternative to use the R$ 4 billion that we are making available in the process to take care of the social and environmental question. Let’s discuss how it is that we will use this 4 billion, to better the life of the ribeirinho people, to better the life of the Indians, to better the life of farmers. There are R$ 4 billion, money that Pará has never seen, to take care of social questions. (da Silva 2010)1
In this speech, President Lula (as he is commonly called) captured the contentious nature of Belo Monte and the government discourse that it will be constructed differently than large dams of the past. The project has been debated for over three decades, with proponents arguing that the dam will produce necessary and sustainable energy for Brazil while also bringing development to the region. It has become the country’s signature development project under a national plan to accelerate economic and infrastructure growth, and the
1Author’s translation.
