{"id":34600,"date":"2022-01-24T21:48:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T21:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/?post_type=noticia&p=34600"},"modified":"2022-02-07T15:08:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T15:08:15","slug":"tragedy-in-brumadinho-3-years-of-impunity-and-buried-dreams","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/tragedy-in-brumadinho-3-years-of-impunity-and-buried-dreams\/","title":"Tragedy in Brumadinho: 3 Years of impunity and buried dreams","content":"

On January 25, 2019, the surveying and drilling technician Lieuzo Luiz dos Santos and four other colleagues were on the penultimate step of Dam 1 (B1) of the C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o Mine, owned by Vale, in the Minas Gerais municipality of Brumadinho. At nearly 70 meters above the ground, they had just finished drilling to install a piece of equipment that could measure the reservoir\u2019s internal pressure. Despite the success of the assignment, the employees had very little time to celebrate, because the dam that stored the equivalent of 400,000 water trucks of the mine\u2019s tailings collapsed in a tsunami of mud. Together with the collapse of the Fund\u00e3o<\/a> tailings dam, run by the mining company Samarco, in 2015, the event made its mark on the recent history of Brazil, and it is already three years old. <\/span><\/p>\n

On that day, the intern Marina Costa had taken homemade bread and cake to eat with Lieuzo and her other colleagues, in the blue tent erected at the top of the dam. In two months, she was set to make her engagement official and also turn 25 years old. While they were having lunch, the assistant Ol\u00edmpio Gomes Pinto noticed the restless behavior of the oxen that were grazing in the region. Nobody imagined what it could mean. After a while, the supervisor Noel Borges de Oliveira felt hungry and decided to take his colleagues down and have lunch in the cafeteria. The assistant Miraceibel Rosa was already gathering up the materials when Lieuzo noticed the blue tent sway. Without any wind at all. In a few seconds, they were all engulfed by the mud. Except Lieuzo, who, despite being dragged for nearly a kilometer, survived the disaster. <\/span><\/p>\n

No accountability or culprits <\/b><\/h2>\n

According to the journalist Daniela Arbex, it was a tragedy foretold, as she explains in the book \u201cArrastados: Os bastidores do rompimento da barragem de Brumadinho, o maior desastre humanit\u00e1rio do Brasil\u201d (Dragged: Behind the scenes of the Brumadinho dam collapse, the biggest humanitarian disaster in Brazil), published by Ed. Intr\u00ednseca. In the book in which she investigates the story of Lieuzo and other victims, she says that Vale already knew there would be no chance of escape from the place that the company itself described as a \u201cself-rescue zone\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe mud continued on its course and, after passing over the railroad terminal, found no obstacle to prevent it from turning Vale\u2019s administrative area, below the B1, into rubble. Just like the company predicted in its Flood Map, when it analyzed the possibility of a collapse of the dam nine months earlier,\u201d wrote Arbex in her book<\/a>. \u201cIn the event of a hypothetical bursting of the dam, the cafeteria, the medical center, the laboratory, the offices, the workshops and the Center for Discarded Materials, all roughly 1.5 km from the B1, would be buried. And, indeed, they were.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With sad precision, Vale\u2019s calculations also estimated that, in the event of a collapse, the flow of mud could kill more than 200 people. The final number was 270 \u2013 and firefighters are still looking for six more. <\/span><\/p>\n

To this day, nobody has been arrested or prosecuted in the case. In November 2021, Vale and TUV SUD (which attested to the dam\u2019s stability) were charged by the Federal Police, in addition to 19 other people. While the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office waits for the case to be brought before the federal courts to file the complaint, the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Labor Issues and Vale signed an agreement that provides compensation of BRL 700,000 to each spouse, child and father of the victims, individually, in addition to BRL 150,000 for siblings and a lifetime pension for dependents. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Vale, <\/span>more than 11,400 people have been compensated<\/span><\/a> through individual agreements and labor compensation to date. A total of BRL 2.7 billion has been committed, of which BRL 2.5 billion has already been paid. <\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement also provides compensation for third parties. This is the case for the technician Lieuzo, who was up at the dam with his colleagues. However, in a statement on the television program <\/span>Fant\u00e1stico<\/span><\/a>, he said he never even received a call from the company. <\/span><\/p>\n

Agreement without transparency <\/b><\/h2>\n

In February 2021, Vale also signed a BRL 37.7 billion settlement agreement with the Minas Gerais state government. The agreement provides for cash transfer programs, school renovations and public health clinics in the municipalities of the Paraopeba river basin, basic sanitation projects and even the construction of a ring road in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte and improvements to the subway system. <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is that the agreement did not include the participation of the victims and those affected by the disaster. \u201cThe State and the Institutions of Justice claim by law to be the legitimate representatives of the affected people in the Paraopeba basin in the negotiations, but how can you trust a State that is completely dependent on iron ore, that is responsible for overseeing the safety of these dams and that, to an extent, directly benefits from the agreement that was signed?\u201d asked Marina Oliveira, an affected person and member of the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte, in an <\/a><\/span>interview with Conectas<\/span> in 2021. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the same interview with Conectas, Let\u00edcia Aleixo, technical advisor for Caritas Minas Gerais, pointed out the lack of transparency. \u201cWhen announced as a great deal, the company conveys an image of \u2018responsibility\u2019 and of \u2018settling due obligations\u2019, although the situation has not essentially changed for the affected families. Moreover, there are many other dams still at risk of bursting in the same state, driving even more families from their homes,\u201d she said. In Brazil, in total, there are 122 dams in a critical state, according to 25 oversight bodies. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/b><\/p>\n