Brazil to build long-resisted Amazon transmission line on indigenous land

[Judi Lynn]

by Jan Rocha on 13 March 2019

Brazil’s Bolsonaro government has invoked reasons of national security to push forward on the construction of a long-resisted 125 kilometer (78 mile) electrical transmission line through the heart of the Waimiri Atroari Indigenous Reserve in the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

For years the Waimiri Atroari people have fought government attempts to build the powerline through their territory, demanding compensation and safeguards to protect their way of life and the wildlife they depend on for food. Right-of-way negotiations with federal authorities, including FUNAI, the indigenous affairs agency, IBAMA, the environmental protection agency, and MPF, the federal prosecutors office, have long been ongoing.

But at the end of February, presidential spokesman General Otávio Rêgo de Barros announced that construction of a 750 kilometer (466 mile) powerline to bring energy from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, to Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, Brazil’s northernmost state, will begin on 30 June; 125 kilometers (almost 80 miles) of the line will pass through the indigenous reserve.

The general justified the rush to build by saying that questions of national security override the interests of the Waimiri Atroari and the environment. “The Indians will be consulted, but national interest must prevail,” he said.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/brazil-to-build-long-resisted-amazon-transmission-line-on-indigenous-land/