RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Rioting halted construction at two major Brazilian hydroelectric dams in the Amazon, delaying key projects in President Dilma Rousseff’s ambitious infrastructure plan.
The work stoppage, sparked by a wave of violence that began at the Jirau dam on Wednesday night apparently after a dispute between two workers, may prevent construction of that project from being completed by the 2012 target date, according to the consortium led by France’s GDF Suez that is building and will operate the dam.
“The project is literally halted,” Victor Paranhos, head of the Energia Sustentavel consortium, told reporters late on Thursday. “We don’t know how long it will be stopped … the incident could lead to a re-evaluation” of the time frame.
Construction at the nearby Santo Antonio dam, also being built along the Madeira river, was stopped as well to prevent the violence at Jirau from spreading, the Santo Antonio Energia consortium running that project said on Friday.
The two dams, which will have a combined installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts, form a key part of Rousseff’s PAC infrastructure investment program, which includes nearly $1 trillion in planned outlays.
