Dilma Andrade de Paula (Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brasil)
Maria Letícia Corrêa (Faculdade de Formação de Professores da Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)
Abstract:
With the creation of the Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco (CHESF) in 1945, and Central Elétrica de Furnas in 1957, the Brazilian federal government joined in the sector of electricity production. In the case of Furnas, with significant participation of foreign capital. Due to the transformations of capitalism after the Second World War, while the state has become the producer of energy, foreign companies have established themselves increasingly in the areas of distribution of electricity, basic equipment and supplies. The construction of the Furnas plant caused a significant impact on municipalities in the reservoir area, sparking fierce opposition, including from sectors linked to the Partido Social Democrático (PSD) and the then president of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek. The agents responsible for the enterprise designed a well articulated discourse, guided by the developmental project, that highlighted the role of regional economic integration, to be exercised by the new plant, which would override local interests. They have mobilized, too, technical arguments, such as the availability of technology for transmitting electricity over long distances, which made possible the scale set for the plant, criticizing the low profitability of isolated electricity systems, in the states. The integrated development of the Rio Grande basin, thus, although conceived in the context of Minas Gerais State's engineering and politics was presented as essential to the country, and in particular for the development of so-called South-Central region, defined from the point of view of energy by the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Distrito Federal, Sao Paulo and northern Paraná. The developmental discourse, associated with the practice of building new dams and other major projects, was effective, at the time of construction of Furnas, in overcoming regional disputes that could impede the construction and thus obscured the social and environmental problems arising out of such vast projects. The aim of this paper is to address the construction of the plant Furnas, analyzing some of the key early battles waged by their agents (engineers, administrators) in journals and associations. Through oral interviews, efforts will also identify the relevance of that project for the national engineering.
