They demand development plans for the affected communities, the building of roads, and cuts in the electricity tariffs for the population. In some cases, even the payment of the compensations promised 25 years ago.

Throughout this long journey, there have been many conflictive incidents, including the famous occupation, in May of 2007, of the facilities of the hydroelectric dam, in a joint action of La Via Campesina and the Movement of Dam Affected People (MAB).

Now, the MAB is carrying out a national and international campaign to ask the Brazilian judiciary for the immediate release of four peasant leaders who have been in prison since April 26th. They were jailed while they were occupying the dam’s premises.

18 MAB activists were arrested that day, but 14 were released in May, while three men and a woman are still in prison, under charges of kidnapping and trespassing.

The conflicts in the North East of Brazil sometimes have a medieval appearance. According to a report published by Brasil de Fato, after the eviction by police officers, there was a “parade” on the streets of Tucurí showing the 18 demonstrators arrested as a “trophy” before they were transfered to the city of Belem, where they were interrogated.

For MAB, the arrests are a clear case of political persecution aimed at criminalizing those “who fight for justice”.

Tucuri dam is Brazil’s greatest electricity generator, and it has become the supplier of big corporations like US corporation Alcoa, Canadian Alcan, Japanese corporation Nippon Alumminum and local company Río Doce.

MAB exposes that the subsidies received by these big consumers of energy generated by Tucuri end up causing a 10 fold increase in the tariffs paid by the Brazilian people, compared to those paid by the corporations.