A FINAL PIECE OF HISTORY - WHO ARE THE OWNERS OF AMAZONIA S HYDROPOWER PLANTS?

In time, both mining and energy sectors became expansive, they needed space to keep evolving. So another aspect of the projects is the integration of unhabbited spaces, not yet dominated by the big capital interests through energy companies. Growing business in the areas soon lead to infrastructre necessities, that lead to big constructions and expansion of the big capitals. In the Xingu River Valey cases, Teles Pires, Madeira and Tapajós River all experienced delocated work forces, expanding of roads and basic infrastruture in some inhospitable municipalities, all promoted by the consortiums operating the areas. The raise in energy offers in these locations is what makes the regions interesting to the mining companies.

In the end, regions once explored by small and medium mining entrepreneurs, more like prospector cooperatives, are now being sold to the interests of major mining corporations, which only judges the projects viable once they build the infrastructure necessary to allocate it. Note that most of the infrastructure developments are partly financed by BNDES through BNDESPAR, as we saw on these chapter’s tables. It is almost needless to say these activities and expansions on Amazon locations converge with a geopolitical government interest in occupy ing the Amazon region economically.

Given the high prices of energy, in order to make the energy sector economically viable, and to make energy prices attracting in Brazil, government is always injecting subsidy on the national companies. That is how the energy sector still profits considerably. In the second trimestre of 2014, for example, LIGHT experienced a 129,5% raise in profits, and CEMIG 44,5%. Government investments are calculated to be in the order of 186 billion reais between 2014 and 2017. And even thought government’s argument for the endeavors is

the country’s electrical needs, the real agenda has more to do with the growth of industrial sectors, than it does with personal consumption¹³.

The problem here is – this growth, as it’s been conducted, isn’t going to generate income to the State, but to the companies involved in the construction, maintenance and operation of the plants. The “Four Sisters” as we call these major civil construction companies – Camargo Corrêa, ODEBRECHT, Andrade Gutierrez, and OAS –, are powerful companies that, along with their subsidiaries and partners, are earning unspeakable amounts of money on the projects.

And note that, as shown in the societary chain slides, corporations create lots os subsidiaries to fund the projects through different origins, there are three specific reasons for that: the first is the dispersion of legal liability; the second is dispersion of taxes payment; the third, and last, dispersion of social accountability, making harder for the social iniciative to find one specific guilty actor.

The networks eventually became so complex and out of control that justice promoted a kind of “clean hands operation”, arresting dozens of big names in the civil construction corporations world. The operation was known as the “Car Wash Operation”, and it revealed a major licitation fraud scheme in Petrobras involving the country’s biggest civil construction companies. In its deposition to the Congress, Petrobras’ ex-director affirms this scheme has been happening for a long time, and in all State’s companies, including Eletrobras. In the end, while the corporations are interested in available cheap energy, there is a very specific reason why governments spends tons of money to keep specific sectors pleased – campaign investments.

As mentioned before, all spoken interests lead to strong lobby in the National Congress in favor of changes on the current Mineral Code – a legal mark for the mining sector. The main goal was to remove obstacles to mining activities, facilitating the sector’s development, especially in protected areas, turning Amazonian soil into a free area for the mining interests.

The proposal is specially disadvantageous to traditional populace in the areas, the Indians living in wealthy areas, mostly. The changes absurdly propose a submission to conservation unities and indigenous reserves creation to the National Mining Council annual meeting, in other words – the creation of new conservation units now serves the interests of the Council also responsible for allowing, regulating and monitoring the explorations.

It is important to highlight that the parliamentary who created such proposal got 1,8 million reais in donations from mining corporations in 2012’s election. And most of the parliamentarians in favour of the changes are also in the election donation’s pay list of most 13 http://www.brasil.gov.br/infraestrutura/2015/08/programa-de-energia-injetara-r-186-bilhoes-no-setor Acess in May 2015

mining and civil construction corporations. Summing up six of the biggest donator’s amounts, almost 12 million reais were invested in relations between corporations and parliament members (Oliveira, 2013).

Different from the other cases analyzed in this paper, the areas of Teles Pires and Belo Monte clearly show the connection between the energy companies and mining ones, they help illustrate the even deeper use of common interests to open Amazonian territory by the implantation of a capital´s enclave, from where others capitalist actors would spread all over the territory.

VIII. CONCLUSIONS

From all facts and analysis disposed by this report, it should not be hard to conclude Amazon is an outstanding mineral and energetical frontier. The area lives through a growing process of exploitation. In this case specifically, a colliding relationship between the installment of hydroelectrical power plants and mining extraction activities.

In order to make the projects possible, essentially in the name of “progress”, Brazilian State seems to have abdicated from its role as direct promoter of the process, creating space for national and transnational private companies to build, operate and profit from the plants, mostly the ones specialized in energy and civil-construction production.

But such associations are not only grounded in the alleged necessity to expand the energy sector, they are also obeying a geopolitical imperative of occupating Amazonian lands. The endeavors are said to represent progress for bringing business to areas with low IDH levels and environmental equilibrium to the areas. This vulgar keynesianist growing ideology is translated in the II Accelerated Growth Program - PAC –, as well as in the first one.

As mentioned along this report, the most profiting companies involved in the process are the civil construction companies. So given all political strings, energy prices in Brazil are, nowadays, more defined by political agendas involving the various actors interacting with civil construction companies than by technical calculations.

The political strings go beyond limiting prices, as all sorts of investment for political campaingns are allowed in Brazil, major corporations play big roles in public policy-making given how much money they spend to elect a candidate. Remember the “Four Sisters’? In 2012, Andrade & Gutierrez donated 81 million reais to fund several partie’s campaigns;

Camargo Corrêa 36 million reais; OAS almost 40 million; and ODEBRECHT donated 28 million reais (Proprietários, 2013).

But note their donations are not limited to one party only, so, it doesn’t even matter who wins the elections. According to data from “Who is the owner of Brazil?” project, between 2004 and 2013, BNDES/BNDESPAR lent 1,7 billion reais to the same “Four Sisters”, 1.1 million specifically to ODEBRECHT and Andrade & Gutierrez (Proprietários, 2013).

In the end, two aspects are essential to understanding this partnership between State, the mining and energy companies, and how their interests are projected in Amazonian soil: a) the power plant’s construction in Amazon rivers aims to attend an energy demand by the mineral-metallurgist and construction sectors, feeding their already existing industrial infrastructure in the areas, and these “trades” are made through lobby in the Congress and funding of political campaings; b) furthermore, due to the growth in exploitation, these sectors’s movimentations turned the installment of new mining interests in the areas viable,closing the interest cicle among the State, the mining and construction sectors.

The already chaotic situation briefly analysed in this report is inclined to get worse. With the building of new and bigger power plants, major companies requests should keep on growing, ever in overlap with once preserved areas, such as indian reserves or conservation unities.

From the environmental point of view, the pressure over the Amazon forest is dramatic.

A study released in May/2015, revealed the increased of deforestation in the Belo Monte area through the action of loggers, who are raiding indigenous lands near the hydroelectric plant, and have already stole more than 150 million of reais in precious woods. And situations like the Belo Sun case, when the company bought several requests from small entrepreneurs in the Amazon interior, should keep on happening, and in even bigger scales. Such actions were made possible by the easy access the exploration efforts has given the areas after the plants started to be constructed.

Finally, the picture drawn in the heart of Amazon forests is one of an unbalanced dispute between the traditional indian comunities trying to maintain their lifestyles against three major sectors in development: a) transnational capital companies with big interests in the energy sector; b) mining corporations avid to dominate amazonian spaces yet unexplored;

and c) the developing metallurgist sector with industrial parks in some of the regions with highest demands for energy.

Taking in consideration that indigenous and traditional population have always had a harmonic relation with the forest and the rivers, and that this is all happening under government funding and ideological support, the consequences are not good for them, for the environment or for our democracy.

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