Workin' on the Br-163

Here's Jeremy, busy interviewing one of the most charismatic labor leaders along the Br-163 a few weeks ago. "Alenquer" goes by the name of the city where he was born, some 900 km north of Castelo de Sonhos, where he currently lives. He was the architect of the roadblock that gained regional and national media attention, and he has recently accompanied more than 100 landless workers from Castelo on a journey to Santarém for a regional social movements meeting. Their task over the next few days is to decide how to respond to the cancellation of agrarian reform projects in Western Pará, as their settlements have been accused of lacking environmental approval and thereby contributing to rampant deforestation along the Br-163. In this photo, Alenquer is describing (for the video camera) how the Castelo roadblock was organized: 60-90 people worked in shifts at the blockade, with teams assigned to security, cooking, camp cleaning, and public relations. In a few days, we'll know whether or not the roadblock--which in large part resulted in this crucial meeting in Santarém--had any effect in calling government attention to the fact that poor rural settlers are paying the price for the actions of highly-capitalized lumber and ranching interests.