Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program Director for International Rivers Network writes in his blog of two new ways that Brazil is flexing its muscle to force through big dam projects. First, the president’s chief-of-staff and presumed future presidential nominee Dilma Rousseff threatened that if the government does not receive favorable terms from companies planning to build dams on the Madeira River, it will simply build them itself. At the same time, the army is carrying out exercises simulating its response to an occupation of “Balbina Dam and mineral-rich areas in the Amazon.”

Switkes writes:

“Social movements, watch your step! Indians opposing dams, hide your machetes! Somehow, with the escalating rhetoric about Brazil´s sovereignty over the Amazon, and proposals for military bases in all indigenous areas, this “war game” could be more real than it appears.”

Brazil is engaged in a massive effort to scale up its electric infastructure, with plans for up to 8 new nuke plants and a series of new hyrdoelectric dams in the Amazon basin. The government estimates that the dams in the Amazon basin will provide the majority of Brazil’s electric capacity over the next several decades — primarily for mining, metal processing and industrial agriculture industries in the Eastern Amazon.