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BEFORE THE FLOOD THE ITAIPU DAM AND THE VISIBILITY OF RURAL BRAZIL JACOB BLANC BEFORE THE FLOOD BEFORE THE FLOOD THE ITAIPU DAM AND THE VISIBILITY OF RURAL BRAZIL JACOB BLANC duke university press Durham and London 2019 © 2019 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ Cover designed by Courtney Leigh Baker Typeset in Minion Pro by Westchester Publishing Ser vices Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Blanc, Jacob, author. Title: Before the flood : the Itaipu Dam and the visibility of rural Brazil / Jacob Blanc. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2019006363 (print) lccn 2019016266 (ebook) isbn 9781478005322 (ebook) isbn 9781478004295 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn 9781478004899 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: lcsh: Itaipu (Power plant) | Itaipu (Power plant)— Political aspects. | Dams— Brazil. | Land reform— Brazil. Classification: lcc tk1442.i85 (ebook) | lcc tk1442.i85 B536 2019 (print) | ddc 333.91/415098162— dc23 lc rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019006363 Cover art: Itaipu Dam. Alexandre Marchetti / Itaipu Binacional This book received a publication subsidy from Duke University Press’s First Book Fund, a fund established by Press authors who donate their book royalties to help support innovative work by ju nior scholars. FOR IZZY CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ix NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY AND ORTHOGRAPHY ​xi ACKNOWL EDGMENTS ​xiii INTRODUCTION History as Seen from the Countryside ​1 CHAPTER 1 Borders, Geopolitics, and the Forgotten Roots of Itaipu ​20 CHAPTER 2 The Proj ect of the Century and the Battle for Public Opinion ​53 CHAPTER 3 The Double Real ity of Abertura: Rural Experiences of Dictatorship and Democracy ​82 CHAPTER 4 Sem Tekoha não há Tekó: Avá- Guarani Lands and the Construction of Indigeneity ​125 CHAPTER 5 The Last Po liti cal Prisoner: Borderland Elites and the Twilight of Military Rule ​154 CHAPTER 6 “Men without a Country”: Agrarian Resettlement and the Strategies of Frontier Colonization ​170 CHAPTER 7 Land for Those Who Work It: mastro and a New Era of Agrarian Reform in Brazil ​197 CONCLUSION After the Flood ​228 NOTES 235 BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 INDEX 291 viii CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS aba Associação Brasileira de Antropologia (Brazilian Anthropological Association) abc Labor strikes in the São Paulo cities of Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, and São Caetano do Sul aesi Assessoria Especial de Segurança e Informação (Special Committee of Security and Information) arena Aliança Renovadora Nacional (Alliance for National Renovation) ceb Comunidades eclesiais de base (ecclesial base communities) cibpu Comissão Interestadual da Bacia Paraná- Uruguai (Interstate Commission of the Paraná- Uruguay Basin) cimi Conselho Indigenista Missionário (Indigenous Missionary Council) cnv Comissão Nacional da Verdade (National Truth Commission) cpt Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Commission) csn Conselho de Segurança Nacional (National Security Council) dsn Doutrina de Segurança Nacional (Doctrine of National Security) fetaep Federação dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura do Estado Paraná (Paraná Federation of Agricultural Workers) funai Fundação Nacional do Índio (National Foundation of Indigenous Affairs) incra Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) itc Instituto de Terras e Cartografia (Institute of Land and Cartography) lsn Lei da Segurança Nacional (National Security Act) master Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra (Movement of Landless Farmers) mastro Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra de Oeste do Paraná (Landless Farmers Movement of Western Paraná) mdb Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (Brazilian Demo cratic Movement) mjt Movimento Justiça e Terra (Justice and Land Movement) mst Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement) pin Plano de Integração Nacional (National Integration Plan) pmdb Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (Brazilian Demo cratic Movement Party) pt Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party) ptb Partido Trabalhista do Brasil (Brazilian Workers’ Party) sni Serviço Nacional de Informações (National Information Ser vice) x ABBREVIATIONS NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY AND ORTHOGRAPHY Like the historical actors in this book, I use the word Itaipu to refer both to the dam itself and to the enterprise that built and administered it, the Itaipu Binational Corporation. Throughout the book,farmers , families, and communities are used inter- changeably to describe the populations that mobilized against Itaipu. This matches the phrasing used by participants at the time. The most common terms for individuals were colono (settler) or agricultor (farmer), and “ family” was the unit most commonly used to describe the number of people whose lands would be flooded. The category of “landless” (sem terra) covers a wide range of rural Brazilians who did not own the legal deed to the lands they worked. Among other s, this includes squatters (posseiros), tenant farmers (arrendatários), sharecroppers (parceiros), day laborers (empregados), and itinerant workers (boias- frias). The term farmer was applied to both landowning and landless farmers. When I discuss the Justice and Land Movement as a whole , farmer refers to all participants, landed and landless alike. When it is necessary to distinguish between the two, I most often use the labels of landed farmers and landless peasants, although the former are sometimes referred to just as farmers, and the latter are also described as peasants, peasant farmers, landless farmers, or landless workers. Because the present narrative focuses almost exclusively on the Brazilian portion of Itaipu’s history, I have chosen to use the Portuguese spelling for all place- names and proper nouns in the trip le frontier area between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. Although Guaraní (with an accented í) is the spelling for the ethnolinguis- tic group common to southern Brazil and Paraguay, the specific community involved at Itaipu is the Avá- Guarani, spelled with an unaccented i. All translations are my own. ACKNOWL EDGMENTS From Wisconsin, to Brazil, and now to Scotland, I’ve racked up so many in- tellectual and personal debts over the course of this proj ect that an acknowl- edgment section seems as tall a task as the book itself. To every one who made this proj ect not only pos si ble but better, I offer the stories in this book, and the meanings they hold in Brazil and beyond, as a preliminary thank- you. As with all students who have had the privilege of studying Latin Amer- ican history at the University of Wisconsin– Madison, I begin by thanking my three mentors: Steve Stern, Florencia Mallon, and Francisco Scarano. I can only hope this book honors what they taught me and so many other s: that intellectual passion and a sense of humility are cornerstones of engaged and impor tant scholarship. Steve’s work ethic and commitment to building community will always inspire me, and for the instances— three times by my count— when I had to be put “in the dog house” for being careless or sloppy in my work, his tough-love approach helped keep me focused and grounded. From Florencia I will always carry the importance of not just writing well but writing meaningfully— and of actually slowing down enough to enjoy the pro cess. Franco was instrumental in pushing my gaze to the Latin American countryside, and his constant good nature showed that one can be both a luminary scholar and an endlessly smiley person. Also at Wisconsin, Jim Sweet strengthened my historiographic knowl- edge of Brazil and stressed the need to always follow your own compass. Bill Cronon and Gregg Mitman welcomed me into the world of environmental history and helped teach me what it means to tell stories that matter. From sociology, Gay Seidman gave me new perspectives on development and social movements— and she will always hold a special place as my family’s intellec- tual yenta. Alberto Vargas made the Latin American, Ca rib bean, and Iberian Studies program a warm second home on campus, and Severino Albuquer- que provided an equally vibrant space through the Brazil Initiative. What first drew me to Madison, and what sustained me throughout, was its community of grad students, and I extend my full appreciation to Dave Bresnahan, Phil Janzen, John Boonstra, Dave Murdock, Debbie Sharnak, Elena McGrath, Bridgette Werner, Valeria Navarro- Rosenblatt, Marcelo Casals, Adela Cedillo, Vikram Tamboli, Alberto Ortiz, and Tamara Feinstein. Beyond Madison, I benefited— and continue to benefit— from the help and friendship of a long line of Brazilianistas: John French, Barbara Weinstein, Jim Green, Cliff Welch, Victoria Langland, Marc Hertzman, Rebecca Atencio, Chris Dunn, Christine Folch, Jerry Dávila, Frederico Freitas, and Andrew Britt. Although I’m still a newcomer to the University of Edinburgh, I thank my colleagues for their warm welcome, and I look forward to the intellectual exchanges ahead. Institutional and financial support came from many sources. My fieldwork was funded primarily by fellowships from the Fulbright- Hays program and the Social Science Research Council. Other funding came from the University of Wisconsin– Madison History Department, the American Historical Asso- ciation, and the Center for Culture, History, and the Environment. The Latin American, Ca rib bean, and Iberian Studies program made pos si ble a summer award from the Tinker- Nave Foundation
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