HIDRELÉTRICAS NA PAN-AMAZÔNIA E A DESTERRITORIALIZAÇÃO DAS COMUNIDADES RIBEIRINHAS DE VILA DO TEOTÔNIO/BRASIL E CACHUELA ESPERANZA/BOLÍVIA

Abstract

The objective of the article is to identify the impacts of the Santo Antônio/Brazil and Cachuela Esperanza/Bolivia hydroelectric plants on the vital elements of the riverside communities of Vila do Teotônio/Brazil and Cachuela Esperanza/Bolivia. The method used was the dialectical one, which allows the analysis of the phenomena studied based on the contradiction presented by each one of them. The methodological procedures were: i) bibliographic and documentary research; ii) fieldwork to collect primary data through the application of a form; iii) systematization of data in spreadsheets, graphs, tables, charts and subsequent analysis. The results show that communities experience the impacts of hydroelectric plants at different times. In Vila do Teotônio/Brazil, residents experienced the immediate speculative impacts and are currently experiencing the procedural impacts of the Santo Antônio/Brazil HEP, the population was deterritorialized, compromising fishing, which was a vital element for local income and subsistence, this process caused a rupture in the community's organization pattern and the loss of the residents' territorial identity, as vital elements were not preserved and reestablished in the resettlement, making reterritorialization impossible. The impacts identified in Vila do Teotônio provide indications of how the installation of the HEP in Cachuela Esperanza could have an impact, as both communities have a riverside territorial identity. In Cachuela Esperanza/Bolivia it was found that although the hydroelectric plant has not yet been built, speculation about the project is impacting the region, the local population is afraid that the project will be built, as this will remove them from the banks of the waterfall, at the same time, some residents are hopeful that the project will bring development to the region, this situation generates instability in the area. It is concluded that the energy expansion directed towards the Pan-Amazon region finds space for its implementation, since the areas where the works are planned and built are marginalized locations that often see the installation of the work as a hope for local development. However, the installation of hydroelectric plants has caused several impacts on riverside communities, as the territorialization of the works overlaps that of riverside communities whose activities linked to rivers are vital elements for obtaining income and family subsistence. The deterritorialization of communities to make way for the works highlights the power relations evident in the Amazon territory, which in turn begins to serve a global/national logic of a strictly economic nature.