Declaration of the Xingu Alliance against the Belo Monte Dam

“We will not allow the government to establish this dam or other projects affecting the lands, lives and survival of current and future generations of the Xingu Basin”

We, the 700 participants of the seminar “Territories, Environment, and Development in the Amazon: the Fight Against Large Dams in the Xingu Basin;” we, the warriors of the Araweté, Assurini do Pará, Assurini do Tocantins, Kayapó, Kraô, Apinajés, Gavião, Munduruku, Guajajara do Pará, Guajajara do Maranhão, Arara, Xipaya, Xicrin, Juruna, Guarani, Tupinambá, Tembé, Ka’apor, Tupinambá, Tapajós, Arapyun, Maytapeí, Cumaruara, Awa-Guajá and Karajas tribes, representing indigenous peoples threatened by Belo Monte and other hydroelectric dams in the Amazon; we, the fishermen, farmers, and residents of coastal cities, impacted by Belo Monte; we, the students, trade unionists, social leaders and supporters of the struggles of peoples against Belo Monte; we together affirm that we will not allow the government to build this dam or other projects affecting the lands, lives and survival of current and future generations of the Xingu Basin.

During the 25th and 26th October 2011, we met in Altamira to reaffirm our alliance and determination to resist together the project to dam and kill the Xingu River, no matter what weapons nor moral, economic or physical threats are used against us,.

During the past decade, the government has returned to developing one of the most nefarious infrastructure projects created by the military dictatorship in the Amazon. During this time, we, who are all Brazilian citizens, were not considered, were not heard, nor were we consulted on the construction of Belo Monte. This is a right protected for us by the Constitution and laws of our country, and by international treaties that protect Brazil’s traditional inhabitants, of which our country is a signatory.

Forced out of their land, expelled from the banks of the river by construction machines and suffocated by the dust they raise, the people of the Xingu have been brutalized by the consortium authorized by the government to clear our forests, cocoa plantations, gardens, orchards, gardens and houses on the Xingu River, destroying the river’s fauna, usurping our properties in the city and the countryside, raising the cost of living, exploiting workers, and terrorizing our families with the threat of a dark future of misery, violence, drugs and prostitution. And thus the government repeats the errors, the lack of respect, and the violence caused by so many other dams forcibly imposed upon the Amazon and its peoples.

Armed with only our dignity and our rights, and strengthened by our alliance, we here declare that we have formalized a pact to fight against Belo Monte, which makes us stronger than the humiliation imposed on us so far. We have signed a pact that will keep us together until this project is wiped from the map and the history of the Xingu, a river to whom we have a debt of honor, of life, and, if the survival of the Xingu requires it, of bloodshed.

Faced with the government’s intransigence in dialogue with us, and with their insistence on disrespecting us, from now on we occupy the construction site of Belo Monte and close access to it from the Trans-Amazon highway. We demand that the government send a representative here to sign a waiver to definitively paralyze all works, and to desist from building the Belo Monte Dam.

Altamira, Pará, Brazil, October 27, 2011

Letter from CONAIE to Evo Morales regarding TIPNIS
Quito, September 26, 2011
OF. Nº 0113 CONAIE-2011

Compañero
Evo Morales
President of the Plurinacional State of Bolivia>

Attention.-

Dear Brother,

Receive our cordial greetings on behalf of the Confederation of
Peoples of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador CONAIE. We would also
like to use this opportunity to send via your person a deep hug of
solidarity to the brothers and sisters in the Plurinational State of
Bolivia.

During these days we have paid witness to all the events that your
government has had to confront in regards to the march by the brothers
from the indigenous peoples of the Bolivian east in defence of TIPNIS.
In the face of this, we would like to make known out deep concern
regarding the events that have transpired, especially the events that
occurred yesterday afternoon.

Being faithful to the principles of the struggle of the people, we
reject the violent repression that the indigenous brothers from the
march have suffered at the hands of the Bolivian police.

For a long time, our people have shared and sought to develop our
common struggle against neoliberalism, for sovereignty, for the
defence of natural resources and against neo-colonial states and
governments. These experiences have shaped and strengthen us in order
to defeat the neoliberal model. No doubt on the way we have had
multiple difficulties or even committed errors. But before anything
else we firmly defend the process constructed between the people, the
struggle for the DEFENCE OF MOTHER EARTH, together with the majority
of the exploited men and women.

We hope that these differences will be resolved through dialogue, with
the aim that they not be utilised by our enemies, the national right
wing and imperialism, in order for them to once again persecute our
peoples, above all our children.

Dear Compañero Evo, knowing your capacity, experience and knowledge we
are sure that you will seek all the possible mechanisms in order to
resolve this conflict between brothers and continue on the path of
Buen Vivir (Living Well)

A fraternal and optimist hug from the peoples and nationalities of Ecuador

Humberto Cholango
PRESIDENT OF CONAIE