Emilio Garrastazu Medici's 'Post-Amazonian Highway'
The Trans Amazonian
Highway
‘Nothing in my whole life has shocked and upset me so deeply.’
1970: The military ruler of Brazil, General
Emilio Garrastazu Medici traveled to the impoverished north-east where the periodic droughts had driven peasants off their small plots of land (minifundio) into the overcrowded cities. Suffering was rampant.
Medici thought he must do something, but what? He told reporters in Rio that “Nothing in my life,has ever shocked and upset me so deeply.
Never have I faced such a challenge.”
Mini Activity: What did Medici do?
Option 1:
Say to hell with fazendeiros--supporters of his regime--and elitist capitalist development.
&
Give each family an adequate plot of land, technical advice …show more content…
to make people less vulnerable to the yearly droughts.
Option 2:
Keep the same social and economic structures
& instead fund a large highway that would cross the
Amazonian Rainforest that would be built by unskilled labor and
(hopefully) attract millions of landless peasant families.
Keep in mind that Medici was the leader of a military dictatorship, arguably the most repressive of Brazil’s military regimes. His regime was supported, in large part, by the wealthy fazendeiros (landowners). It would also be hard to convince them to give up a small piece of their land for the sake of the poor. Because that sounds way too much to comunism, which Medici was against being a military ruler and all. How could he support something other than an elitist, non-populist form of capitalist development?
Side note: He was in cahoots with Nixon to keep Cuba out of the Organization of
American states. They were probably biffles. His second option was to allow the same social and economic structures to go on in the north-east but instead cut down a titanic strip of land across the Amazon. He hoped this land would provide homes to the landless peasants of the north-east and thus reduce the congestion of cities.
Highway!!
Transport Minister: Mario Andreazza
“On the one hand, the north-east, ravaged by periodic droughts, with a huge sector of it’s population lacking even the basic conditions for survival, sees many of its inhabitants emigrate to the centre-south where the large cities are not in position to absorb this unskilled labour.
On the other hand, the population of Amazonia, which is a vast region with fertile valleys and important mineral deposits, is concentrated in tiny hamlets beside the river.”
As you can see from this quote from the transport minister, government officials were hopeful that the Trans amazonian highway would fix the problems of the north-east and make use of the untapped resources of the amazon.
“On these banks of the
Xingu, in the midst of the
Amazon jungle, the
President of the Republic began the construction of the Trans-Amazonian
Highway, a historic start to the conquest of this gigantic green world.”
This quote was on a brass plaque on a tree that Medici supposedly cut down himself as the inauguration of the highway construction.
“Land without people for the people without land.”
The TransAmazonian Highway: a 5,000 kilometer road stretching from the
Brazilian-Peruvian border to the Atlantic coast through the Amazonian Rainforest.
Construction began on the 9th of October,
1970.
That was the motto of the highway construction project. Some really believed that this highway would open up the Amazon and provide farming land, opportunities, and homes to people without any.
Some predicted that by the 1980’s, the land around the Trans Amazonian Highway would be home to ten million people.
The military regime hoped that these people, mostly illiterate peasants, would supply
Brazil with staples such as beans, rice, and maize as well as exports such as coffee, cocoa, pepper and oranges.
Rewards for Settlers
● 250 acres of land
● 6 months allowance to get their crops going ● and easy access to agricultural loans (but no education on the dangers of loans)
Costs: USD $65,000/ family
The plan would grow to cost Brazil US$65,000 (1980 dollars) to settle each family, a staggering amount for Brazil, a developing country at the time.
“das dumb”
Early Criticism
“The simple fact of building roads does not mean that we are creating conditions for the occupation of the demographic vacuum. As well as roads, we must pro-vide the settlers with technical and financial assistance so that they can produce and fix themselves on the land.”
-Jose Sergio de Paz Monteiro, director of the road department for the state of Amazonas
Some, however, were not as optimistic. Jose Sergio de Paz Monteiro was a fan of the radical land reform. He also said, “north-east consumes very little of what we produce and it produces very little of what we consume.” and thus the highway would provide no real benefit to the people of the regions. However, in true military regime fashion,
Medici forced Monteiro to retract his disapproval and even deny that he had be interviewed. Monteiro then had to show support for the highway, which was less than believable. Unfortunately for the people of the region, Monteiro was correct. Within a year, the hope of bringing millions to the sides of the trans amazonian highway was
gone.
The soil of the Amazon basin is made up of mostly sediments which make the roadbed unstable and vulnerable to the yearly inundation. The reality was that the road would be unusable for six months of the year which meant that the settlers would be isolated and unable to sell whatever products (crops) they had. I say whatever products because the rainforest is not a good place for crops because it lacks the proper nutrients. The land would deteriorate more and more so new plots of the rainforest had to be cut down to make more farming land. Not very sustainable. Fires were set to clear the land which most times resulted in untamed forest fires. On top of that, it opened the door for loggers to come in and cut directly in the heart of the
Amazon.
“The road which links nothing to nowhere”
By 1974: about 4,969 families had been officially settled.
In all only about 20,000 families had come to the region.
1975: Housing problems, no assistance, expensive farming equipment, isolation.
The road was no match for the Amazonian torrential rains.
The people complained about living in inadequate tiny wooden houses, having very little technical assistance, having to buy expensive farming equipment from far away towns, and being isolated as the weak road was rendered useless between
November and April. The rain destroys the road every year and there is a repair movement every May and June to fix the bridges, potholes, and broken drainage pipes. the government also failed to educate the settlers on banking which resulted in many being exploited and sucked into high debt. It was called the road which links nothing to nowhere because it does not link any major cities together. Within five years, the government stopped the little support they had given the settlers completely. How much did it cost?
1970-1979: Brazil borrowed $629 million from the World Bank for construction of new roads and improvement of existing ones
In the late 1970s Brazil entered debt crisis which, along with harsh conditions, is partly responsible for the unfinished job. However, this is only for the construction of roads, as Scott will show us, Brazil borrowed money for other industrialization projects. At a time, Brazil borrowed more than 50% of its GDP from other countries.
When the interest rates in the West increased during the early 1980’s, and the price of oil shot up over 300%, the world economy slowed down and it became almost impossible for Brazil to pay back its debts.
Other Problems
Millions of indigenous
To this day, the road has exposed to diseases for to be fixed yearly. the first time. High
Incredible cost death tolls
The government has plans to pave all of it, a project that will take more than ten years and upwards to a billion U.S dollars to complete. Even though most of it is not even used. Some parts of the “highway”, near Peru, are just two meters wide. The people living there still cultivate crops but mostly for their own survival. In recent years, Brazil has been funding the construction of the Interoceanic Highway which will fully connect
Brazil to Peruvian coastal ports. This too cuts through mostly Amazonian rainforest.
Both road construction projects have forcefully introduced one previously “untouched” tribe of indigenous peoples to the rest of the world. They however, have very little say in what goes on with their homeland.
Activity
Based on the reading, role play:
Lenders and Borrowers
Who is to blame?
Highway
‘Nothing in my whole life has shocked and upset me so deeply.’
1970: The military ruler of Brazil, General
Emilio Garrastazu Medici traveled to the impoverished north-east where the periodic droughts had driven peasants off their small plots of land (minifundio) into the overcrowded cities. Suffering was rampant.
Medici thought he must do something, but what? He told reporters in Rio that “Nothing in my life,has ever shocked and upset me so deeply.
Never have I faced such a challenge.”
Mini Activity: What did Medici do?
Option 1:
Say to hell with fazendeiros--supporters of his regime--and elitist capitalist development.
&
Give each family an adequate plot of land, technical advice …show more content…
to make people less vulnerable to the yearly droughts.
Option 2:
Keep the same social and economic structures
& instead fund a large highway that would cross the
Amazonian Rainforest that would be built by unskilled labor and
(hopefully) attract millions of landless peasant families.
Keep in mind that Medici was the leader of a military dictatorship, arguably the most repressive of Brazil’s military regimes. His regime was supported, in large part, by the wealthy fazendeiros (landowners). It would also be hard to convince them to give up a small piece of their land for the sake of the poor. Because that sounds way too much to comunism, which Medici was against being a military ruler and all. How could he support something other than an elitist, non-populist form of capitalist development?
Side note: He was in cahoots with Nixon to keep Cuba out of the Organization of
American states. They were probably biffles. His second option was to allow the same social and economic structures to go on in the north-east but instead cut down a titanic strip of land across the Amazon. He hoped this land would provide homes to the landless peasants of the north-east and thus reduce the congestion of cities.
Highway!!
Transport Minister: Mario Andreazza
“On the one hand, the north-east, ravaged by periodic droughts, with a huge sector of it’s population lacking even the basic conditions for survival, sees many of its inhabitants emigrate to the centre-south where the large cities are not in position to absorb this unskilled labour.
On the other hand, the population of Amazonia, which is a vast region with fertile valleys and important mineral deposits, is concentrated in tiny hamlets beside the river.”
As you can see from this quote from the transport minister, government officials were hopeful that the Trans amazonian highway would fix the problems of the north-east and make use of the untapped resources of the amazon.
“On these banks of the
Xingu, in the midst of the
Amazon jungle, the
President of the Republic began the construction of the Trans-Amazonian
Highway, a historic start to the conquest of this gigantic green world.”
This quote was on a brass plaque on a tree that Medici supposedly cut down himself as the inauguration of the highway construction.
“Land without people for the people without land.”
The TransAmazonian Highway: a 5,000 kilometer road stretching from the
Brazilian-Peruvian border to the Atlantic coast through the Amazonian Rainforest.
Construction began on the 9th of October,
1970.
That was the motto of the highway construction project. Some really believed that this highway would open up the Amazon and provide farming land, opportunities, and homes to people without any.
Some predicted that by the 1980’s, the land around the Trans Amazonian Highway would be home to ten million people.
The military regime hoped that these people, mostly illiterate peasants, would supply
Brazil with staples such as beans, rice, and maize as well as exports such as coffee, cocoa, pepper and oranges.
Rewards for Settlers
● 250 acres of land
● 6 months allowance to get their crops going ● and easy access to agricultural loans (but no education on the dangers of loans)
Costs: USD $65,000/ family
The plan would grow to cost Brazil US$65,000 (1980 dollars) to settle each family, a staggering amount for Brazil, a developing country at the time.
“das dumb”
Early Criticism
“The simple fact of building roads does not mean that we are creating conditions for the occupation of the demographic vacuum. As well as roads, we must pro-vide the settlers with technical and financial assistance so that they can produce and fix themselves on the land.”
-Jose Sergio de Paz Monteiro, director of the road department for the state of Amazonas
Some, however, were not as optimistic. Jose Sergio de Paz Monteiro was a fan of the radical land reform. He also said, “north-east consumes very little of what we produce and it produces very little of what we consume.” and thus the highway would provide no real benefit to the people of the regions. However, in true military regime fashion,
Medici forced Monteiro to retract his disapproval and even deny that he had be interviewed. Monteiro then had to show support for the highway, which was less than believable. Unfortunately for the people of the region, Monteiro was correct. Within a year, the hope of bringing millions to the sides of the trans amazonian highway was
gone.
The soil of the Amazon basin is made up of mostly sediments which make the roadbed unstable and vulnerable to the yearly inundation. The reality was that the road would be unusable for six months of the year which meant that the settlers would be isolated and unable to sell whatever products (crops) they had. I say whatever products because the rainforest is not a good place for crops because it lacks the proper nutrients. The land would deteriorate more and more so new plots of the rainforest had to be cut down to make more farming land. Not very sustainable. Fires were set to clear the land which most times resulted in untamed forest fires. On top of that, it opened the door for loggers to come in and cut directly in the heart of the
Amazon.
“The road which links nothing to nowhere”
By 1974: about 4,969 families had been officially settled.
In all only about 20,000 families had come to the region.
1975: Housing problems, no assistance, expensive farming equipment, isolation.
The road was no match for the Amazonian torrential rains.
The people complained about living in inadequate tiny wooden houses, having very little technical assistance, having to buy expensive farming equipment from far away towns, and being isolated as the weak road was rendered useless between
November and April. The rain destroys the road every year and there is a repair movement every May and June to fix the bridges, potholes, and broken drainage pipes. the government also failed to educate the settlers on banking which resulted in many being exploited and sucked into high debt. It was called the road which links nothing to nowhere because it does not link any major cities together. Within five years, the government stopped the little support they had given the settlers completely. How much did it cost?
1970-1979: Brazil borrowed $629 million from the World Bank for construction of new roads and improvement of existing ones
In the late 1970s Brazil entered debt crisis which, along with harsh conditions, is partly responsible for the unfinished job. However, this is only for the construction of roads, as Scott will show us, Brazil borrowed money for other industrialization projects. At a time, Brazil borrowed more than 50% of its GDP from other countries.
When the interest rates in the West increased during the early 1980’s, and the price of oil shot up over 300%, the world economy slowed down and it became almost impossible for Brazil to pay back its debts.
Other Problems
Millions of indigenous
To this day, the road has exposed to diseases for to be fixed yearly. the first time. High
Incredible cost death tolls
The government has plans to pave all of it, a project that will take more than ten years and upwards to a billion U.S dollars to complete. Even though most of it is not even used. Some parts of the “highway”, near Peru, are just two meters wide. The people living there still cultivate crops but mostly for their own survival. In recent years, Brazil has been funding the construction of the Interoceanic Highway which will fully connect
Brazil to Peruvian coastal ports. This too cuts through mostly Amazonian rainforest.
Both road construction projects have forcefully introduced one previously “untouched” tribe of indigenous peoples to the rest of the world. They however, have very little say in what goes on with their homeland.
Activity
Based on the reading, role play:
Lenders and Borrowers
Who is to blame?