Atingidos por barragens: conflitos socioambientais no Rio Madeira

Abstract

To design large projects in the Amazon region never stopped being a governmental pretense. Since the 1960’s, we have seen a series of investments in infrastructure, being built in the most unimaginable places in the region. The installation of such “monuments” have affected various aspects of the lives of “traditional peoples and communities”, instigating local social conflicts. The implantation of the “Madeira Complex” represents one more milestone in the history of “traditional peoples and communities” by generating “forced displacements” and the separation of organizational units, in order to make way for “integrationist" actions. Those “people affected” (“atingidos”) by this process, whom are the focus of this research, have established a struggle for the recognition of their rights, related to various issues, above all, the collective existence as “atingidos” by the “Madeira Complex” hydroelectric project. In this research, I highlight various conflicting situations, specifically those that occurred between 2011 and 2014. During this period the conflict situations have become more intense. The struggle of the “atingidos” caused by the hydroelectric companies has been based on the maintenance of their territories, the recognition of their rights, the guarantee of their way of life, as well as the practices through which they have socially constructed their concepts and ways of relating to each other. Considering the disputes and impositions, I start from the understanding of how such social agents have reacted to all of the onslaughts that prioritize the establishment of infrastructure that benefits the coalition of interests between “private companies and governments”; taking into account that this association denies the recognition of the social agents and their rights over the territories historically occupied in the Madeira River region.