Does the name Belo Monte sound familiar? Let me guess: not. I certainly knew nothing about this dam construction project until I started to read up on graft and the interrelations between Brazilian politics and (inter)national construction companies.

The dam, with a price tag of more than 10 billion dollars, has been built in Brazil’s second largest state, Pará, and is rerouting the Xingu river. Its construction (the third largest of its kind in the world) destroyed the local ecology and made fishing in the Amazon areas practically impossible, thus voiding the local, self-sufficient economy. Ten thousands of people were forced to relocate in cheaply and quickly built satellite townships, which are already falling apart. There are no jobs, and there is no public transit that could bring people to where the jobs are. A few schools and hospital were built, but fewer than promised, and too little too late. Crime rates and drug abuse have risen to astronomic proportions.

The energy and the profits from the dam are not staying in the region – the electricity is used to fabricate aluminium for car manufacturers – our way of life in the fast lane is based on flooding of the rain forest, and the abuse of Indigenous peoples’ rights. There were laws, from the 1980s, that were used by the lower courts to try and stop or delay the destruction. However, court decisions are now regularly overturned by the high court with suspensão de segurança, a claim of danger to national interests if the industry is not allowed to proceed. That clause was kept on the books from the times of the military dictatorship. How can this happen? Political parties in Brazil get their income primarily from industrial donations. These mega projects are ideal to cement the quid pro quo.

Why mentioning this with regard to the Olympics? Guess which firms built the infrastructure used for the games…..

(Here is Part 1 of many parts of a documentary film on the project – alas in German)