Mud sea in lower part of Vale in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais. Photo: Cadu Rolim\/Fotoarena\/PA Images. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n
At the small city of Brumadinho in southwest Brazil, a
\ndam owned by the country\u2019s biggest mining company, Vale S.A., has collapsed. On 25th
\nJanuary, it liberated over 12 million cubic meters of rejects, which fell into
\nthe Paraopeba River. The mudslide has swept houses, workers, and animals. So far, 99 people were found dead and still 257 are missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistory is repeating itself\u201d, tweeted former environment
\nministry Marina Silva.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three years ago, a barrage controlled by a joint venture
\nbetween Vale S.A. and the anglo-australian BHP Billiton crumbled, destroying
\nthe municipality of Mariana. <\/p>\n
Considered to be Brazil's worst environmental disaster, the incident at Mariana cost the lives of 19 people. The mire reached rivers and
\n7 states still feel its impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brumadinho disaster has to be investigated as a crime\u201d<\/p>\n
Mariana\u2019s victims have been fighting in court for fair compensation.
\nNo individual has been convicted nor has\u00a0the case\u2019s trial been scheduled.
\nNevertheless, Vale S.A. requested in December last year to expand in 88% the
\ncapacity of C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o mine, where the broken dam of Brumadinho is located.\n<\/p>\n
As reported by The Intercept Brasil, the company knew about the risks, but
\nomitted them. And officials accepted the solicitation, ignoring environment
\nprotection entities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe brumadinho disaster has to be investigated as a crime\u201d
\nsaid Baskut Tuncak, the UN Special Rapporteur Human Rights & Toxics.<\/p>\n
Yet, problems with Vale S.A.\u2019s are not restricted to the
\nbrazilian territories. The company operates in more than 30 countries. And
\nthere are alleged violations in at least eight of them.<\/p>\n
To explore coal in the province of Tete in Mozambique,
\nVale S.A. resettled around 1300 families. The corporation promised food,
\nhousing and infrastructure but barely fulliled any of its commitment. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, the households had difficulty to access enough
\nreliable water or quality agricultural land after their removal.<\/p>\n
Last year, Tete residents closed a mine for more than 10
\ndays, after several attempts to negotiate a solution to the high levels of dust
\nin the air.<\/p>\n
The list of accusations includes slave labor in Brazil, water pollution in Argentina and New Caledonia, corruption of Guinean political leaders, and espionage of workers, popular movements and journalists.<\/p>\n
In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in
\nCanada, a workers strike lasted over a
\nyear. In order to make a way to Sulawesi nickel mine in Indonesia, Vale S.A.
\nhas expelled the indigenous Karonsi\u2019e people who live there.<\/p>\n
Communities from Cajamarca, Peru, denounced the use of
\nparamilitary militias to threat protesters. There, Vale S.A. has a daughter
\ncompany called Miski Mayou, which extracts and exports phosphate.<\/p>\n
The list of
\naccusations includes slave labor in Brazil, water pollution in Argentina and
\nNew Caledonia, corruption of Guinean political leaders, and espionage of
\nworkers, popular movements and journalists.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Vale S.A. was elected by Greenpeace as the worst company in the world.
\nThe many conflicts with Vale led protesters to organize the First International
\nMeeting of the Affected by Vale in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro. The event gathered
\n160 people from the five continents. <\/p>\n
On the day the dam broke in Brumadinho,
\nthe group released a public note. "We sympathize with all those affected
\nand keep shouting: it was not an accident!"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mud sea in lower part of Vale in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais. Photo: Cadu Rolim\/Fotoarena\/PA Images. All rights reserved. At the small city of Brumadinho in southwest Brazil, a dam owned by the country\u2019s biggest mining company, Vale S.A., has collapsed. On 25th January, it liberated over 12 million cubic meters of rejects, which fell into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}