In December 1966, at the invitation of Brazil's President General Castello Branco, 300 of the most powerful Brazilian tycoons, real estate speculators, and beef barons boarded a luxury cruise ship out of the city of Manaus. Few on board could resist the general's offers for tax holidays; loans with negative interest rates; and land grants of 1 million acres, followed by promises of roads, airports and hydroelectric projects. The hydroelectric projects alone would displace a tenth of the Brazilian native population and a quarter million peasants. What evolved was a "land rush."
To establish ownership during the 1960's and 1970's, land was cleared and cattle roamed the new developments. The indigenous tribes, peasants, clergy and anti-development organizers in the region were insulted, provoked, harassed, tortured or murdered by gangs of pistoleiros hired by the entrepreneurs to carry out the developer's dreams. Statistics compiled by the Catholic Church estimate 1,000 people were killed by the developer's gangs between 1985 and 1989. The most famous anti-development organizer in Brazil was Chico Mendes.
Many of the ranches "created" on the Branco's luxury cruise ship in 1966 are today economic failures. One in three of the government subsidized mega-ranches has since been abandoned, and almost 50 percent never sold a cow. Due to the efforts of many, a political and economic effort has been made to implement protective environmental and economic legislation, to prevent a tragic exploitation of tropical forests.
