Sponsor of Parintins Festival, Eneva is targeted by MPF for threatening indigenous people to death

Paula Litaiff – From Cenarium*

MANAUS (AM) – Sponsor of the 57th Parintins Festival (AM), which takes place this weekend, the company Eneva S/A is the target of an investigation by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office of Amazonas (MPF/AM) for attempting to harm the lives of indigenous leaders in the “Campo do Azulão”, located between the towns of Itapiranga and Silves, 226 and 181 kilometers from Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, which has been under the company’s fossil fuel extraction operation for power generation (thermoelectric plants) since 2021.

Eneva transferred R$15 million to representatives of the Caprichoso and Garantido bumbás, characters in the festival, whose main objective is to “exalt the indigenous culture of the Amazon”. The MPF’s initial investigation was based on a report by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) – Prelacy of Itacoatiara, delivered to federal agencies in September 2023, in which it recorded that the company violates Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

R$ 15 million from Eneva for Parintins Festival

ILO Convention 169 provides for public hearings with traditional peoples in the case of large-scale projects near indigenous territories. In the vicinity of Campo do Azulão, there are approximately 200 indigenous, quilombola and riverine families. The presence of gas extraction wells close to the communities is still a threat to their way of life.

In the midst of a debate about the demarcation of land in the vicinity of the Azulão Complex, the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) has taken a stand in a document sent to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office. Funai documents attest to the presence of indigenous communities and that there is a process underway to ratify the territory.

According to information from the Pastoral Land Commission, the project is damaging traditional peoples’ access to food, poses risks to water quality and could destroy historical records, as the CENARIUM team also found in an investigative report this year.

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Chief’s testimony

“It’s unfortunate that we can’t stay on our land without a (police) escort. It’s a totally different life not being able to have the freedom we had before, to fish, to hunt, to do what we liked”. The statement comes from the chief of the Gavião Real I village, Jonas Mura, who is in the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (PPDDH), following threats from Eneva employees.

The leader is part of the families of indigenous peoples who live around the Azulão Complex. Jonas defines what it feels like to live under death threats for questioning the gas and oil exploration process in the largest state in the Amazon.

Jonas has been at the head of the community for 27 years, inhabited by 96 families from the Mura, Sateré-Mawé and Munduruku ethnic groups. The village where the chief lives, Gavião Real I, is one of seven in the region cut off by the Anebá River. In all, around 190 families live throughout the area adjacent to the region explored by Eneva.

He told the report that he was concerned about Eneva’s exploration limits in the municipality, especially with regard to natural resources. For him, the exploitation, which he considers to be unbridled and without proper preservation, could jeopardize the future and maintenance of the communities, which depend on hunting and fishing as a source of food.

“We have been fighting for a long time not to have our rights violated by the white man. The fight is to protect our fauna, our forest, rivers and lakes, so that our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can enjoy them later. If we don’t protect this land, it will be destroyed by the white man and our descendants won’t be able to see the wealth we have here.”

In addition to chief Jonas Mura, five other indigenous leaders are in the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, following threats from Eneva employees. They preferred not to identify themselves during a report at the Azulão Complex.

Eneva and the Amazon

With net revenues of R$ 2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023 alone, Eneva is going against the grain of global environmental protocols and investing in the exploitation of fossil fuels, violating the rights of traditional peoples in the Amazon with the promise of generating financial development in the municipality of Silves, in the state of Amazonas. The business group’s main shareholder is Banco BTG Pactual.

With the promise of generating annual royalties of more than R$70 million a year, Eneva closed 2023 with a transfer of R$2.3 million in royalties after eight years of gas exploration in the municipality of Silves. The town has one of the worst unemployment rates with a formal unemployment rate of over 17%, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

” Value for the people”

Eneva told CENARIUM that it “supports the Parintins Festival because it believes that it is essential to promote Amazonian tradition, value the people and support the generation of work and income linked to the organization of the event, as well as promoting sectors such as tourism, local commerce and handicrafts”. Read the full press release:

Eneva clarifies that it is a company committed to the socio-economic and cultural development of Amazonas, and supports the Parintins Festival because it believes it is essential to promote Amazonian tradition, value the people and support the generation of work and income linked to the organization of the event, in addition to promoting sectors such as tourism, local commerce and handicrafts.

Eneva values the highest level of compliance with legislation and standards and maintains a close and continuous dialog with all agents involved in the exploration of oil and gas areas.

It should be noted that no traditional indigenous and/or quilombola communities have been identified in the areas of influence of Eneva’s operations, according to the official FUNAI and INCRA databases, which regulate the definition in Brazil.

Eneva also clarifies that Eneva’s environmental licenses for the Azulão complex, in Amazonas, are still in force, as decided by the responsible institutions. The company fully complies with the legislation and standards of the sectors in which it operates, following all the steps and procedures required to obtain a license.

Read more: Eneva’s gas pipeline could aggravate conflicts in the Amazon

(*) This article is based on special reports by journalists Márcia Guimarães and Adrisa De Góes.