"The white man wants too much: our water, our land. There will be war so the white man cannot interfere in our lands again". Angry Amazonians are threatening to occupy the site where a massive hydroelectric dam is due to be built.

All of Brazil is caught up in the controversy surrounding the Belo Monte dam, a huge project which President Lula da Silva is determined to fast track. This week the government signed contracts with a Brazilian consortium to deliver the dam on an Amazon tributary in 2015. The world's third largest dam, it is expected to generate a major share of the vast country's power supply. 

Political divisions
The dam is dividing the country. The latest opinion polls in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper say 53 percent of Brazilians are in favour and 47 percent are against. With presidential and parliamentary elections due in October, the political stakes are high. The opposition is strongly against the plan, taking a firm stand against President Lula da Silva and his Workers' Party, from whom the dam is a flagship project.

No one cares
Opponents emphasise the damage the project will inflict on the environment and population - many of them indigenous. One Amazonian tribe has been demonstrating for days in the capital Brasilia:

"They occupy the Amazon and construct dams and reservoirs for their own gain. No one cares about the land of the indigenous peoples. The inhabitants of the Xingu Valley are being thrown off their land and out of their homes."

Greenpeace estimates that an area of 500 square kilometres will be flooded, forcing tens of thousands of families to abandon their homes.

Warrior people
So far the Amazonians have been completely excluded from the plans, says Dutchman Paul Wolters, who works in Brazil for an NGO that safeguards the interests of indigenous peoples. Yet their right to have a say in projects which impact on their daily lives is enshrined in the constitution.

On Thursday, indigenous leaders decided to enter into last minute talks with the hydroelectric consortium. If the talks fail, the indigenous people will occupy the construction site. Paul Wolters explains: 

"They are mainly Juruna, but later they will be joined by the Kayapo, a warrior people who are not afraid to fight. The government is going to have to send in the army to get the Amazonians out."

The Dutchman says the indigenous peoples have already sent letters to the president warning that they will not accept the dam and that there will be bloodshed if need be.

Global events
In the end, the only leverage the Indians have is their appeal to public opinion at home and abroad. They take hope from the fact that large-scale worldwide protests put paid to dam construction plans in the 1990s. But, this time, the dam's advocates are armed with weighty arguments to forge ahead. Brazil's booming economy needs the clean, cheap power the new plant can provide.

Brazil will host the football World Cup in 2014, and the Olympic Games two years later. But as recently as last year, a massive black-out left over 60 million Brazilians without electricity for several hours. This prompted immediate doubts as to whether Brazil is capable of hosting such global events. And these are doubts that President Lula is determined to banish once and for all.

[RNW translation: dd]