Brazil mine disaster victims in London to ‘demand what is owed’

By AFP
February 4, 2026


Marilda Lyrio de Oliviera, one of the Indigenous leaders of the Boa Esperanca village in Aracruz, Espirito Santo - an area affected by the 2015 Mariana dam disaster, is pictured outside Britain's High Court in London - Copyright AFP ADRIAN DENNIS

Victims of a 2015 dam collapse in Brazil, for which Australian mining giant BHP has been found liable, attended a London hearing on Wednesday ahead of a trial to determine damages.

In one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters, an iron-ore mine run by a firm co-owned by BHP unleashed a deluge of toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers and the ocean, killing 19 people.

In November, the High Court in London found BHP “strictly liable” for the disaster following a mammoth trial, which could lead to billions of dollars in damages shared among 620,000 plaintiffs.

“We are demanding what is owed to us,” Marilda Lyrio de Oliveira, from Aracruz in the state of Espirito Santo, told AFP on Wednesday.

“We hope for a just outcome, because the impact was enormous, the crime was enormous.

“Many people are dying of cancer, something that didn’t exist before,” added Lyrio de Oliveira, representing the region’s Indigenous people, as she stood alongside about a dozen other victims attending court.

“We have physical and mental health problems because we can no longer carry out our former activities,” she added.

The two-day hearing aims to set the timetable for the compensation trial, which could begin in October or the first half of 2027, the law firm Pogust Goodhead, representing the plaintiffs, told AFP.

Dissatisfied with the proceedings in Brazil, the victims turned to the British courts two years ago, seeking £36 billion ($49 billion) in compensation.

At the time of the disaster, one of BHP’s global headquarters was in Britain.

“The suffering was so immense that it shattered our lives and interrupted our dreams,” Ana Paula Auxiliadora Alexandre, who lost her husband in the tragedy, told AFP on Wednesday.

“For ten years, we fought for justice. The fact that a mega-corporation has been convicted here in England makes me think that the British justice system is more diligent than the Brazilian one,” she added.

The mine was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale.

The trial at the High Court in London ran from October 2024 to March 2025.

Indigenous Brazilians protest Amazon river dredging for grain exports


By AFP
February 4, 2026


Auricelia Arapiun, pictured during the COP30 UN climate talks in 2025, was one of several Indigenous leaders protesting plans to dredge rivers in the Amazon

 - Copyright AFP Pablo PORCIUNCULA

Fran BLANDY

Hundreds of Indigenous people have been protesting in northern Brazil for two weeks outside the port terminal of US agribusiness giant Cargill, angered over the dredging and development of Amazonian rivers for grain exports.

Brazil’s Indigenous communities have raised the alarm for months about port expansion on rivers they see as vital to their way of life, a grievance they protested at COP30 climate talks last November.

“The government is opening up our territories to many projects … to boost agribusiness,” Indigenous leader Auricelia Arapiuns told AFP in a video message from the Amazon port city of Santarem, in the same state that hosted COP30 in Belem.

“We have been here for 14 days, but this struggle didn’t start now. We occupied Cargill to draw attention so that the government would come up with a proposal.”

By Wednesday, some 700 Indigenous people from 14 communities were taking part in the demonstration, according to the Amazon Watch advocacy group.

The protesters have blocked trucks from “entering and leaving the terminal,” Cargill said in a statement sent to AFP, adding it has “no authority or control” over their complaints.

The Minnesota-based multinational has agricultural logistics operations across Brazil, where it employs 11,000 people.

Protesters on Wednesday demanded the cancellation of a decree signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in August which designates major Amazonian rivers as priorities for cargo navigation and private port expansion.

They also want the cancellation of a federal tender issued in December worth 74.8 million reais ($14.2 million) to manage and dredge the Tapajos River — a major Amazon tributary.

“This infrastructure that is coming is not a space for us, and it never will be. It is a project of death to kill our river and our sacred places,” Indigenous leader Alessandra Korap of the Munduruku people said in a statement.

The ports ministry said earlier in January that the contract of a company for maintenance dredging was necessary to “increase navigation safety… and ensure greater predictability for cargo and passenger transport operations.”



– ‘Serious environmental risks’ –



The protesters criticized the government for only sending mid-level officials to meet with them and breaking a COP30 promise not to carry out projects on Amazonian rivers “without prior consultation.”

Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples said in a statement Monday it recognizes the “legitimacy of the concerns raised” and that no dredging or other projects can take place on the Tapajos river without the consent of those affected.

Fed up, the protesters were no longer in the mood to negotiate.

“We don’t want a consultation. We want this decree revoked,” Indigenous leader Gilson Tupinamba, wearing a large headdress of blue and orange feathers, told a meeting with government representatives on Wednesday.

Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans and corn, and in recent years has switched to northern river ports to export grains more cheaply.

Critics see plans to boost barge traffic on Amazonian rivers as yet another project where economic development is clashing with Lula’s much vaunted commitment to the environment.

“What did the government do after the COP? They launched the dredging tender,” Arapiuns told the government representatives.

After the meeting, the protesters blocked the road leading to the Santarem international airport — a popular hub for tourists.

Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) — which has taken legal action against the dredging efforts — on Tuesday pointed to “serious environmental risks” for the river.

In a statement, the MPF referred to the release of heavy metals such as mercury into the water, and destruction of crucial habitats for threatened species of dolphins, turtles and aquatic birds.