Belo Monte: Valter Cardeal Mente Sobre Oitivas Indígenas, a Sheyla Jurun...

In June of this year in Foz do Iguaçú, Brazil, at the International Hydropower Association's bi-yearly Congress, Eletrobras Director Valter Cardeal declared: "All of the indigenous people, even the Kayapó who live upstream from the area of impacts, are in favor of Belo Monte." Cardeal made the declaration with a straight face, speaking to the audience of dam industry CEOs, financial officers, and government representatives who were probably ecstatic to hear such a development. Too bad it wasn't true. Sitting in the front row were indigenous leaders Sheyla Yakarepi Juruna and Patxon Metuktire. In fact, they said, indigenous people were not properly consulted. And that's against the law.
Cardeal supported his claim by using a powerpoint presentation that juxtaposed photos of indigenous leaders Raoní, Tuíra, and Megaron – well known opponents of Belo Monte – with other leaders from the area of impacts on the "Big Bend" in the Lower Xingu Basin, next to a list of meetings held with indigenous people. The data was culled from a report called the "Indigenous Component," in which indigenous leaders' attitudes towards Belo Monte were studied and categorized. The report was added to the Belo Monte EIA in 2009 after the studies were completed, and the government has controversially used the report since then to argue that tribes were properly consulted.

When it comes to ascertaining whether or not tribes were properly consulted, live testimony works so much better than powerpoint data. Listening to Cardeal speak was Sheyla Yakarepi Juruna, an indigenous leader of the Juruna tribe of Km-17, a tribe that will be affected. Sheyla figures prominently in the 2009 report, as the agency visited and interviewed her a number of times in the territory of the Juruna of Km-17.

In Iguaçú, Sheyla decried Cardeal's lie:

"It's easy for you to claim that we're in favor, isn't it. The fact is that there were no indigenous consultations. There were no indigenous consultations. There were small meetings to inform us of the situation at the time. But how will our lives change after the dam is built? This whole time we've demanded to be heard by the National Congress. And we're still waiting for that to happen. The government used us, took advantage of our good faith, and together with FUNAI they went into our communities only to study us. And based on that they said we were consulted. That's a huge lie."

Valter Cardeal, Diretor da Eletrobras, mente e declara que "todos os lideranças indígenas são a favor do Belo Monte", em Congresso Internacional das Barragens organizada pela IHA (International Hydropower Association). Sheyla Juruna, liderança dos Juruna do Km-17, estava lá para desmentir sua declaração. Confira sua resposta. Este vídeo consta no blog:http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/zachary-hurwitz/2011-8-11/legal-status-belo-monte-built-house-cards