Native Brazilians demanded their rights on a project that would force relocation and affect the environment. (Amazon Watch photo)
BRASILIA, BRAZIL — A Brazilian Court upheld the Cosntitutional rights of indigenous people in ordering a hault to the Belo Monte dam project this week.
“The property is different for the Indian to white,” said federal Judge Souza Prudente. “The Indian has a mystical vision of the property, and the Constitution guarantees it.”
Opponents of the hydroelectric dam on the Amazon’s Xingu River noted that the two planned reservoirs and two 75 kilometer-long canals would flood a total of 668 square kilometers of which 400 km2 is forest, releasing the greenhouse gas methane and forcing some 20,000 people from their homes in Altamira and Vitoria do Xingu.
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