Abstract

The Belo Monte hydroelectric power station on the Xingu River is one of the main projects of Brazil's energy and infrastructure sector, a symbol of the economic development of the Amazon region. While the government considers the Belo Monte Dam a strategic project for national security to be completed at any cost in order to start operations in 2015, environmentalist, religious and native population movements claim that it jeopardizes the fragile social and ecological balance of the area, infringes on the rights of the indigenous peoples and opens the way to a series of other dams and power houses that will gravely impact the Xingu ecosystem.