On May 05, 2016, the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant, located on the Xingu River in Pará, was inaugurated during the second year of the second term of then-President Dilma Rousseff (PT). The plant became the third largest hydroelectric plant in the world in installed capacity, but also a symbol of environmental destruction and violation of rights. 

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The project has historically been controversial and has faced intense resistance from indigenous communities, riverside dwellers, and civil society organizations, both national and international. 

From the very beginning of the licensing process, even before the issuance of the preliminary and installation licenses, the hydroelectric project was criticized by hundreds of researchers from diverse fields of knowledge who formed a panel of experts to question the environmental and social viability of the project. 

The construction, which spanned years, was marked by questions regarding environmental licensing and the irreversible impacts on the Xingu River basin and the way of life of traditional populations. 

Watch the documentary that recounts the impacts of the hydroelectric dam on 300 riverside families who were violently removed from their homes for the construction of the power plant: 

The beginning of this story dates back to 1975, when the Hydroelectric Inventory Studies of the Xingu River Basin began. Still under the dictatorship, in 1980, the newly created state-owned company Centrais Elétricas do Norte do Brasil, known as Eletronorte, took over the project and began conducting technical and economic feasibility studies for the so-called Altamira Hydroelectric Complex, formed by the Babaquara and Kararaô power plants. Nine years later, in 1989, the First Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples of the Xingu took place in Altamira (PA), where issues related to the possible damming of the Xingu River were discussed. The event was the stage for the iconic act of Tuíre Kayapó pointing his machete at the face of José Antônio Muniz Lopes, then president of Eletronorte, as a symbol of struggle and resistance. 

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Kararaô becomes Belo Monte, the only concession to the indigenous people.

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The photograph was featured in major national and international newspapers, breaking the historical silence imposed on indigenous voices and broadening the public debate about the project.

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Between 1990 and 2000, the power plant project was halted, only to be resumed following a cooperation agreement between Eletronorte and Eletrobrás to complete the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility studies for the plant. 

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The people of the Xingu region had no rest during the following decades. The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project was successively revived by different federal governments. During the administration of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB), studies on the viability of the dam were reinstated. In a letter to the then-president, the Movement for the Development of the Trans-Amazonian Highway of the Xingu requested the suspension of all large-impact projects in the region, especially the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, until there was an exemplary discussion and the building of consensus with the local society.

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“We dare to create our own development project. That is modernity, Mr. President: local society thinking about public policies and engaging in dialogue with its government about the future of a region.”

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Read the full letter
Letter sent to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso

During Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) second presidential term, the project was taken out of the drawer and sent for execution. Later, during Dilma Rousseff's government, the hydroelectric plant was inaugurated and began operating, under the administration of the concessionaire company Norte Energia, the largest shareholder in the venture, since 2010. Subsequently, in 2019, during Jair Bolsonaro's (PL) administration, the last turbine of the plant was inaugurated, completing its implementation. 

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Indigenous people and riverside communities monitor life on the Xingu River.

Starting in 2015, after the issuance of the Operating License that culminated in the damming of the Xingu River, riverside families living on the islands and banks of the river were expelled from their territory to make way for the main reservoir of the power plant. The forced displacement caused social dispersion, impoverishment, and violation of rights.

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Terror and resistance in Xingu

But since 2013, independent groups have been monitoring the waters of the Volta Grande do Xingu region. Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring (MATI) It was founded in 2014 with the goal of documenting the changes caused by the relationship between the flow of the Xingu River and the environmental impacts caused by Belo Monte, using data production methods that combine traditional and scientific knowledge. 

Recently, on February 21, 2026, the indigenous and riverside communities of MATI identified, for the fourth consecutive year, millions of fish eggs dying in a place that should be a breeding ground: the Piracema do Odilio. In a letter to the authorities, the MATI team denounced:

“As highlighted by the decision of Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court, there was no free, prior, informed, and good-faith consultation in the licensing of the [Belo Monte] hydroelectric plant. Now, with the disastrous consequences of this undertaking, there is a new opportunity to follow another path, in accordance with the law, prioritizing sustainability and human rights.”

See the full text. 
Letter from MATI to the authorities

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Tragedy repeats itself in the Xingu. 

Watch the animation produced by the Socio-Environmental Institute, which portrays the work of independent groups monitoring the waters of the Volta Grande do Xingu region. 

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The history of Belo Monte is marked by the violation of rights and the lack of accountability for the environmental damage resulting from the hydroelectric dam. River courses and ancestral histories have been interrupted by the insistence on a project conceived in a context of scarce environmental policies and the persecution and devaluation of the lives and culture of the peoples who preserve the region.

The series Today in Socio-environmental History presents a wealth of information from Collection of the Socio-Environmental Institute which has over 250 cataloged items focused on socio-environmental themes, including ISA publications, general books, theses and dissertations, maps, news, audiovisual materials, among others. Today in Socio-environmental History is an invitation to reread Brazil with greater breadth, sensitivity, and justice, valuing the memory and documentation of its diverse peoples.

This publication is supported by the Amazon Fund and is a product of the project "Defense and Promotion of Indigenous Rights in Brazil: Building Capacities and Engaging People for a More Just Future," carried out by the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), with funding from the European Union.

The content of this material is the sole responsibility of the institution that produced it and does not reflect the position of the European Union.