People Affected by Belo Monte struggle to be recognized

Approximately 200 residents of the neighbourhood Independente II of Altamira marched through the city on the morning of Wednesday (January 28). They went to the Norte Energia office, the Government House and finally to the town hall to request to be recognized as affected by Belo Monte dam and to demand their right to urban resettlement.

The neighbourhood where they live is located at an area pre-seen to be flooded by the lake of Belo Monte, however, residents are still not recognized as affected.

Norte Energia says that will remove until end of March all the families of the area where the lake is going to take place, but the situation of the residents of Independente II concerns because they have not being registered yet (and that is the first step to be recognized as affected by the company). More than 200 families live in this neighbourhood.

First stop of the protesters: Norte Energia’s office. Doors closed and security guards to avoid “possible invasion” (which did not occur).

A resident made a denouncement in audience to the Public Ministry in November of 2014, but, no action have been taken, the community decided to organize within MAB and struggle. After protesting in front of the consortium, the group have met with the representative of Norte Energia Amauri Daros at the Government’s House.

Due to the organized popular pressure, the consortium undertook to study the situation of the area and provide for residents within 20 days a meeting in the neighbourhood. The City Hall also committed to attend at the same meeting, since Norte Energia is transferring responsibilities to the City Hall as families were living in “improper places.”

Although, the Mayor Domingos Juvenil, which received the families at the town hall, said that the responsibility is exclusively of the Norte Energia. “Belo Monte is not a construction of the City Hall, I was personally against this project, I preferred Altamira as it was before”.

“Belo Monte is not a project of the City Hall“, defended the Mayor of Altamira (wearing suit)

“We have being demanding this meeting since the audience with the Public Ministry (November of 2014), but Norte Energia is stalling us; showing no interest with this situation. So the only way was for us to unite the community and seek aid with MAB”, said Elaine Cristina, school teacher and resident of the neighbourhood.

“Today an important step have been taken, because the families mobilized, but there is still a long path to guarantee the right to resettlement”, affirmed Jackson Dias, MAB activist.