International
‘Progress destroying nature’: Brazil dam fuels fears for river
| By AFP | Carlos Fabal with Joshua Howat Berger in Rio de Janeiro |
Holding a dead fish, Junior Pereira looks grimly at a puddle that used to be part of Brazil’s Xingu river, a mighty Amazon tributary that has been desiccated here by the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.
Pereira, a member of the Pupekuri Indigenous group, chokes up talking about the impact of Belo Monte, the world’s fourth-biggest hydroelectric complex, which locals say is killing one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth and forcing them to abandon their way of life.
“Our culture is fishing, it’s the river. We’ve always lived on what the river provides,” says Pereira, 39, who looks like a man trapped between two worlds, wearing a traditional Indigenous necklace and a red baseball cap.
He gazes at the once-flooded landscape, which Belo Monte’s water diversion has made a patchwork of puddles dotted with stranded fish.
“We’ve lost our river,” he says.
“Now we have to buy food in the city.”
‘Like a permanent drought’
Stretching nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), the Xingu ebbs and flows with the rainy season, creating vast “igapos,” or flooded forests, that are crucial to huge numbers of species.
They are also crucial to an estimated 25,000 Indigenous people and others who live along the river.
Belo Monte diverts a 100-kilometer stretch of the Xingu’s “Volta Grande,” or Big Bend, in the northern county of Altamira to power a hydroelectric dam with a capacity of 11,233 megawatts — 6.2 percent of the total electricity capacity of Latin America’s biggest economy.
Built for an estimated 40 billion reais ($7.5 billion) and inaugurated in 2016, the dam diverts up to 80 percent of the river’s water, which scientists, environmentalists and residents say is disastrous for this unique ecosystem.
“The dam broke the river’s flood pulse. Upstream, it’s like it’s always flooded. Downstream, it’s like a permanent drought,” says Andre Oliveira Sawakuchi, a geoscientist at the University of Sao Paulo.
That is devastating fish and turtle populations whose feeding and reproduction cycles depend on the igapos, he says.
Sitting by the Xingu’s breathtaking Jericoa waterfalls, which the Juruna people consider sacred, Indigenous leader Giliarde Juruna describes the situation as a clash of worldviews.
“Progress for us is having the forest, the animals, the rivers the way God made them. The progress white people believe in is totally different,” says Juruna, 40.
“They think they’re doing good with this project, but they’re destroying nature and hurting people, including themselves.”
Lula under scrutiny
Proposed in the 1970s, Belo Monte was authorized under ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) — who just won a new term in Brazil’s October elections.
As Lula, 77, prepares to take office again on January 1, the project is drawing fresh scrutiny from those hoping the veteran leftist will fulfill his promise to do a better job protecting the Amazon than outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over a surge in deforestation.
Touted as a clean-energy source and engine of economic development, Belo Monte has not exactly lived up to expectations.
According to the company that operates it, Norte Energia, the dam’s average output this year has been 4,212 megawatts — less than half its capacity.
A recent study meanwhile found its operations tripled the region’s greenhouse gas emissions — mainly methane released by decomposing forest that was killed by the flooding of the dam reservoir.
A new plan
In 2015, researchers from the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) conservation group teamed up with the Juruna to document the devastation.
They have devised a new, less-disruptive way for Belo Monte to manage water, the “Piracema” plan — named for the period when fish swim upriver to spawn.
Researchers say the plan is a relatively small tweak to the dam’s current water usage, adapting it to the natural flood cycles.
Brazil’s environmental regulator is due to rule soon whether to order Norte Energia to adopt it.
The company declined to comment on the proposal, saying in a statement to AFP that it instead “recognizes the plan established in the plant’s environmental licensing.”
The decision is vital, says biologist Camila Ribas of the federal government’s National Institute for Amazon Research.
“When you completely alter the flood cycle, forests die,” she says.
“These are incredibly intricate, interlinked systems. If Belo Monte and other hydroelectric projects disrupt them too much, it could spell the end of the Amazon.”
International
Trump says GOP ‘learned a lot’ after democratic election wins
U.S. President Donald Trump said that he and the Republican Party “learned a lot” from the Democratic victories in Tuesday’s state and local elections. He also compared Democrats to “kamikaze pilots” over the ongoing budget standoff.
Speaking at an event with Republican senators on Wednesday, Trump described the results as an unexpected setback.
“These were very Democratic areas, but I don’t think it was good for Republicans. In fact, I don’t think it was good for anyone. But we had an interesting night and we learned a lot,” he said during remarks broadcast by the White House.
Trump agreed with pollsters that two key factors led to Republican losses in New York’s mayoral race and the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia.
International
Bolivia’s Jeanine Áñez freed after Supreme Court annuls her conviction
Former Bolivian interim president Jeanine Áñez was released from a women’s prison in La Paz on Thursday, where she had spent more than four and a half years for an alleged coup, after her conviction was annulled, AFP journalists confirmed.
Dozens of supporters and family members gathered outside the facility to celebrate her release. Áñez left the prison waving a Bolivian flag around 15:00 GMT.
“It is comforting to see that justice will once again prevail in Bolivia. She was the only woman who took on the role with bravery and courage,” said Lizeth Maure, a 46-year-old nurse who had come to show her support.
Áñez, a 58-year-old lawyer and conservative politician, governed Bolivia for nearly a year until November 2020, when she handed power to leftist leader Luis Arce.
She was arrested in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison for “resolutions contrary to the Constitution,” accused of illegally assuming the presidency after Evo Morales resigned in 2019 amid social unrest.
Her sentence was overturned on Wednesday by the Supreme Court of Justice, Bolivia’s highest judicial authority.
The court ruled that Áñez should have been subjected to a “trial of responsibilities” before Congress— a constitutional process reserved for sitting presidents, vice presidents, ministers, and top judges — rather than prosecuted in an ordinary criminal court.
As she was welcomed by relatives and supporters upon release, Áñez declared:
“I feel the satisfaction of having fulfilled my duty to my country, of never having bowed down. And I will never regret having served Bolivia when it needed me.”
International
Peru declares Mexico’s president Persona Non Grata over political asylum dispute
Peru’s Congress declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum persona non grata on Thursday, accusing her of “unacceptable interference in internal affairs” after granting political asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez.
The motion, introduced by right-wing parties, passed with 63 votes in favor, 33 against, and two abstentions. Lawmakers argue that Sheinbaum has maintained a hostile stance toward Peru since taking office.
Peru severed diplomatic relations with Mexico on Monday following the asylum decision. Chávez, who is facing charges for her alleged involvement in former President Pedro Castillo’s failed coup attempt in December 2022, remains under protection at the Mexican embassy residence in Lima.
Following the diplomatic break, interim President José Jerí said on X that Mexico’s chargé d’affaires in Peru, Karla Ornela, has been notified by the foreign ministry that she must leave the country within a strict deadline.
The Mexican government condemned Lima’s decision as “excessive and disproportionate,” asserting that offering asylum to Chávez is a legitimate act grounded in international law and does not constitute interference in Peru’s domestic matters.
Trump says GOP ‘learned a lot’ after democratic election wins
Bolivia’s Jeanine Áñez freed after Supreme Court annuls her conviction
Peru declares Mexico’s president Persona Non Grata over political asylum dispute
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