Sexual abuse

Regarding the outcomes associated with women´s and young people´s safety in Altamira and other affected municipalities, a majority of the interviewees said that intimidations, physical violence, sexual abuse and incidents of this kind had escalated after the Belo Monte dam: A female interviewee expressed:

“Women are the main victims of the dam, victims of so much aggression and violence that happened during the construction period. I will say not only women but children, teenagers; the youngest generation. These groups suffered a lot with the whole process because the rate of crimes involving these groups rose vastly in short time.”

(R1AP)

Many of the interviewees spoke about the situation of indigenous women that had been evicted from their traditional villages in the areas around Volta Grande. A public prosecutor told:

“The indigenous population in Foro Seco has been dislocated to other places and many are even arriving the city, so rape also against indigenous women here in the municipal is creating major disruption.” (R15PPO)

A functionary at the Agency for Indigenous Affairs (Fundação Nacional do Índio - FUNAI) broadened the issue of sexual violence against indigenous women:

“The people who live in Volta Grande used to live by the river, and their lives are interconnected with the river – it is their source for life. Now they don´t have the river anymore. They have to use the road, and they don´t know how to live by the road.

Many new roads have also been made, that enters into or are close to the indigenous territories, and this causes problems. Now there are a lot more not-indigenous people who live or move around in indigenous areas. They are also very close to the dam, and sometimes the workers fight with each other and run away to the indigenous area.

Sometimes women come across these men when they are walking outside their village, and they get scared. There is also a big problem with alcohol amongst the men who are contracted by the construction company, who hang about these roads.”

(R17FUNAI)

In some of the indigenous communities that had not been uprooted, Norte Energia had started building schools and medical units. This had, according to the respondent from FUNAI, harmful implications for the indigenous women:

“Now you also have non-indigenous people working in these villages, building schools and medical centres. To construct one of these health units, they have employed thirty men who are stationed in the village, and the women, kids and teenagers are there.”

(R17FUNAI)

A university professor referred to a study he had directed about sexual violence in Altamira where they had found that infractions against women have increased after the implementation of Belo Monte. He had obtained data in the Forum of Justice, the largest institutional archive in Altamira on the denounced cases of sexual abuse and exploitation between 1954 until

2014. He discovered that the current dynamics are very different from the time before the project. He explained:

“It worsened a lot after 2010. The average of denounced cases between 2000 and 2010 was 10 per year. Then it went from 35 cases in 2010 to 86 in 2014, an almost three-fold increase of only sexual abuse incidents in Altamira. During the period we undertook our investigation for the project, we found that 9 in 10 cases involved sexual abuse and the other was sexual exploitation. So, we see more visibility around the problems of sexual abuse whereas problems of sexual exploitation are more unclear… This reflects the population’s ability to denounce, the police´s capacity to investigate and dismantle crimes and at the same time, the capability of the sex market to remain concealed from the State apparatus to continue its practices.” (R12PROF) Both the professor and the public prosecutor clarified that the rise of these types of crimes were foreseen in coherence with the arrival of 33.000 persons from other places, however this problem was not recognized in the EIA nor in the conditionals of the PBA that could initiate preventive measures. The professor continued:

“Though we have a high visibility of the cases of sexual abuse, we do not have the same visibility around sexual exploitation, and even worse, this was not even identified in the EIA. Nothing related to this, nothing about the sexual crimes that were actually present from before, that would boost, and have boosted, due to the construction project considering that 95% of the newcomers are men, it was obvious that this was going to feed the sexual market.” (R12PROF)

Regarding the question if there is a public support system for women who had been victims of sexual abuse, the respondents from the university and the Public Ministry of the State

provided opposing information. On one hand, the physiatrist from the Public Prosecutors Office explained that there existed a public program called Pro Paz (Pro Peace), which is activated when there is a case of domestic violence or sexual abuse. The victim is put in contact with the Pro Paz program that is entitled to help them socially and to access other health facilities. The physiatrist explained:

“The Ministry of Health promotes Pro Paz as a model that helps protecting the health of women who have been victims of violence. The victims are helped by a social worker, and they are given psychological support and medical care, also to prevent

sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy resulting from rape in cases detected up to 72 hours after sexual abuse. Being helped and heard reduces the psychological impact on these women who have been victim of domestic violence. This is a program funded by the State (of Pará), it isn´t a Federal project.” (R16MPE)

On the other hand, one of the respondents from the university said:

“There are very few instruments that assist women victims of violence here. We do have the Women’s Movement here, but this is not due to public policy or a government agency. And now, more recently, we had the Women´s ward at the Police Station, but it is now closed, there was no one there to receive people. It looks like there is now a female police chief, but there are no, for instance, institutions for psychological and social support as women are victims of violence. Accordingly, there was no legal apparatus to provide a form of support and better conditions of care.” (R12PROF)