A Washington Post article entitled “Brazilians Cry Plot Over Amazon Plan” (June 6, 1965) reported a controversy in Brazil over a proposal for international cooperation on research in the Amazon River basin. The uproar began when a delegation from the National Academy of Sciences, two State Department representatives, and twelve university advisers met in Rio de Janeiro with the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture and National Research Council to discuss the establishment of several research centers to study forestry and farming in the basin. Arthur Ferreira Reis, the Amazonias governor, was present, according to the article, but left the meeting in disgust. He then denounced the project publicly as a conspiracy to internationalize the region. Reis also claimed that the Rand Corporation and the Hudson Institute, two non-profit organizations that do research for the Pentagon, were conducting scientific research in the Amazon basin without Brazilian authorization. Reis’s accusations were denied by the U.S. embassy, Brazilian government officials and the conservative Brazilian press. In addition Anthony J. Wierner, assistant to the director of the Hudson Institute is quoted as having said: “Hudson personnel have not been conducting any studies or even visits in the Brasilian Amazon. Certainly we have never advocated internationalizing the region.” He went on to says “Some of us have suggested, however, that the potential for economic development of the entire Amazon basin, including portions of Brazil, Peru, Clobia, and Bolivia could be greatly improved through comprehensive study.”
Yet two papers published by the Hudson Institute in 1966, written by staff member, Robert Panero, show that contrary to its previous claims, the Institute has conducted aerial surveys of not only the Amazon River delta but of other river deltas in South America. Both papers use the systems analysis approach to evaluate the feasibility of constructing earth dams at appropriate river sites to create two networks of artificial lakes. The first such network according to the paper entitled “A South American Great Lakes System”, would connect the major river systems of the rain forest interior. The map below shows the proposed locations of the artificial lakes:
As the above map indicates, the scheme focuses primarily upon two large construction projects in the Amazon: (1) the construction of an artificial lake between the Orinco and Negro rivers, bordering upon Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil; and (2) the widening of the main course of the Amazon River into a gigantic lake which would flood large areas of lowland swamp. The second paper, entitled “Choco Development Project”, proposes the construction of an interoceanic canal system in the northwest section of Colombia to connect the Caribbean with the Pacific. This project entails building two dams to transform the A- trato and San Juan Rivers into artificial lakes which would then be linked together by a system of canals. (see map below)
The Hudson Institute team devised the Choco Development Project under contract from the Colombian Ministry of Public Works, with some technical assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Committee of the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).
The artificial lake-systems proposed would be constructed primarily according to the Institute Studies, to facilitate development of the surrounding regions. (Increasing navigability of the rivers is seen as secondary.) For instance, the proposed Amazon lake would make accessible by waterway the fertile highlands of the Amazon region which are now isolated due to intervening swamps and rapids. Such accessibility would make possible the exploitation of valuable resources such as timber and rich soil. Presumably the timber and agricultural products of the region would be shipped down the Amazon lake to the sea and from there to the urbanized southern sectors of Brazil and other parts of the world.
Likewise the main purpose of the proposed Choco development project is not so much the connection of the two oceans as it is the development of both the hydroelectric potential of the rivers and the mineral and fuel resources of the area. Two hydroelectric plants constructed at the dam sites are expected to triple the nation’s present electrical capacity. The lakes themselves would provide a means of transportation, on a large scale, the gold and platinum which is already being mined in the Choco region. It would also enable the exploitation of the known deposits of copper, zinc, bauxite, and lead as well as the probable deposits of petroleum. None of these minerals have yet been mined because of the lack of adequate power and transportation.
The Hudson Institute studies, like most of the so-called “economic development” schemes devised by U.S. research organizations, focus primarily upon the technical feasibility of the projects they propose. In so doing the tend to equate the development of underdeveloped areas with increased exploitation of material and manpower resources through the utilization of higher levels of technology. Such studies overlook the more central factor in the development process – the social factor of control over the material and human resources to be exploited. The key question in evaluating these “development” schemes is therefore: who would control the increased productivity which the projects would bring about? One might ask whether foreign investors would be the main benefactors of the projects proposed by the Hudson Institute – whether, that is, foreign companies possess the technical competence and financial resources to utilize most fully the transportation and power potential of the artificial lake systems?
