Source: Al Jazeera
In early March, while boisterous Carnival celebrations filled the streets of Rio de Janiero, bulldozers began clearing away Amazonian jungle for roads leading to the construction site of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in northeast Brazil.
The $10bn dam is planned to be the third largest dam in the world. Government officials say its construction will generate thousands of jobs and create electricity for 23 million homes.
Environmental groups and indigenous activists in the area, however, condemn the project, which they say will displace some 20,000 people, and destroy over 100,000 acres of land in an area full of ecological diversity and indigenous communities.
“We don’t want Belo Monte because it will destroy our rivers, our jungle and our way of life,” Raoni, an indigenous leader from the Kaiapo tribe told the BBC. Ireo Kayapo, another leader, told reporters that if his tribe was pushed from the land, “there’ll be war and blood will be spilled”.