Indigenous Peoples Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site in Brazil, Stop Destruction of their Territory

SAO PAULO — About 100 Indians, fishermen and other activists opposed to a huge hydroelectric dam being built on the Xingu river in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are occupying one of its construction sites.

The Norte Energia consortium that is building the Belo Monte dam says the protesters occupied the site Tuesday night.

The activist group known as Xingu Alive Forever says the work site was occupied to protest “plans to definitively dam the Xingu River” jeopardizing the livelihoods of some 40,000 people who live in the area where the dam is being built.

Norte Energia says that for security reasons it halted work at the site and transferred nearly 1,000 men to other work sites.