Brazilians impacted by mining assert: ‘Genocide legalized by the state’ 10 December, 2020 - 20:20
This story is the fifth in a series reporting on the legacy, current status and likely future of bauxite mining in the Trombetas river basin and Amazon delta. Journalist Sue Branford and filmmaker Thaís Borges journeyed there in February, 2020. Their investigation of aluminum production is especially relevant now, as Brazil’s Bolsonaro administration pushes to open the Amazon’s Indigenous reserves and other protected areas to large-scale industrial mining. BARCARENA, Pará state, Brazil Maria Socorro da Silva lives in the Amazon, but hasn’t heard birdsong in her backyard for many months. “Do you see those guavas?” she asks, pointing to a tree covered in ripe fruit. “Birds won’t eat them.” Then she points to the fruit on the ground. “Chickens don’t go near them. They can sense that they’re polluted, but I can’t,” says Socorro, as she bites into a lusci