Day 8: Political unrest and the struggle to leave Carajas

(Friday, 4 May 2007) Friday morning we rose early to pack up and ready ourselves for the drive back to Maraba. But as I frequently found to be the case in Brazil, even the most solid-seeming plans tend to shift and flow like water. Here, our plans were disrupted when we discovered that the main road between Carajas and Maraba was blocked by members of the group "Sem Terra" or MST, a group of squatters / rouge political organization. Sem Terra means "without land." On the way into the region, we had passed by their makeshift camp that was chiefly marked by the smell of burning plastic. Now, on the return trip, a crude roadblock had been erected at their camp that blocked all traffic in both directions. We didn't get close enough to see if the protesters were armed, but even if they weren't, running their blockade was out of the question.

After some discussion, we attempted to locate an alternative, more circuitous route, but that too was reported to be blocked by protestors. So our only recourse was to turn around and try to fly out of the small airstrip at Carajas. Fortunately for us, the CVRD mining geologist Giloberto arranged for some of the secretarial staff at the mine HQ to assist us in making last-minute plane reservations. We secured passage on a small, propeller-driven plane and eventually departed without incident after a several hour wait at the airport. We flew directly to Brazilia, but arrived far too late to catch any connecting flights to Sao Paulo. We stayed overnight at a local hotel and flew out the next morning. Since most of our group were using US government travel, our relief at evading the blockade was mixed with some trepidation at the thought of trying to justify the unplanned expenses on our travel reports back in the US.

Picture of "Sem Terra" protesters from May 2005. Photo from BBC article by Sue Branford