A judge on Friday overturned a decision that could have delayed construction of a huge Amazon dam opposed by environmentalists, Indians and the director of Avatar.
The judge in the capital of Brasilia reversed a decision to suspend contract bidding scheduled for next week and also overturned the suspension of the environmental license for the 11,000-megawatt Belo Monte dam, according to a statement from Brazil’s solicitor general.
Federal prosecutor Renato Brill de Goes, acting on behalf of dam opponents, said an appeal would be filed, but he did not say when.
He also questioned why the dam was put back on track so quickly, just a day after the suspensions were appealed by Brazil’s government.
James Cameron, director of the blockbuster movie Avatar, asserted that government pressure played a role in the quick court reversal.
“When you have entrenched interests and billions of dollars, that’s a big steamroller,” Cameron said from Washington in a telephone interview after spending a week in Brazil protesting the dam and meeting with Indians who would be affected.
Brazil’s electricity regulator resumed plans to hold an auction on Tuesday to pick a consortium to build and operate the US$11 billion dam and sell electricity to the nation, according to a statement from the agency, known as Aneel.
The original decision halting the dam from going forward came on Wednesday, when Cameron was visiting a small city near the dam site, accompanied by members of Amazon Watch, a San Francisco-based group that works to protect the rain forest and the indigenous people living there.
In a statement on Friday, Amazon Watch said “the battle is not over.”
“We are committed to supporting Brazilian indigenous peoples who have vowed to fight to stop the Belo Monte dam,” the statement said. “This dam is one of the most destructive projects ever undertaken in the Amazon.”
Belo Monte would be the world’s third-largest hydroelectric energy producer, behind China’s Three Gorges dam and the Itaipu dam that straddles the border of Brazil and Paraguay.
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