Stained River by David Faxon Page B

in his path. He was quick to capitalize, holding complete disregard for anyone who got in his way. In this manner, he built a small mineral resource company into one of substantial size within the industry. He chose to maintain a low profile when it came to running the company, using the title, chairman emeritus. He was, however, the mastermind behind a vastly corrupt empire that used an industrial base to its advantage.
    Early in his career, Marquez thought his name was too plebian, so he changed it to the more aristocratic sounding Castelo Branco, believing it would serve him better. He lived quietly with his third wife in a very large and expensive villa outside Brasilia, appearing in public only when the occasion required. The aura of a subdued private life belied the world he lived in; one of political corruption, intimidation, and assassination. In it, he moved adroitly to achieve power and influence.
    In the early eighties when word spread there was gold in the Amazon, he and two others flew to a remote town with a dirt runway deep in the rainforest. They verified the rumors. There was gold. Plenty, if you knew how to extract it and few laws to prevent anyone from doing it. The territory was simply too large for Brazilian authorities to establish any form of justice. The unscrupulous could rape the land, taking whatever they wanted. Corruption and dominance of local tribes could easily become tools to that end.
    With his talent for acting, he was a persuasive salesman. He used those skills to achieve his goals. If quiet persuasion failed, he discarded diplomacy and resorted to more forceful methods. It didn't take long before he had enough money to buy off every legislator, police official and general he could think of. Those who resisted met untimely ends. Soon he operated with no encumbrances and no questions asked concerning pollution of waterways and forest destruction. Great swaths of trees were cut to develop surface mining operations and roads. When one area depleted, he moved to the next.  Labor was cheap; he could hire local Indians at slave wages.
    As his business grew, so did his greed. He established sites closer to the most remote regions where tribes , like the Yanomami, lived; simple people who depended on the forest for their livelihood. They learned too late that developed countries had an insatiable appetite for natural resources. Unfortunately, those resources existed on land their ancestors inhabited for thousands of years. High demand brought with it unscrupulous people like Castelo Branco.
    As encroachment continued, millions of acres were destroyed , and forest animals were forced to flee their once pristine sanctuaries. There were greater tragedies to come; prostitution, liquor, gambling and socially transmitted diseases. More serious was the chemical pollution that would eventually cost lives. Extensive and indiscriminate use of mercury cyanide was used to aid in the amalgamation of gold. Poisons entered the rivers, streams, and water tables of the once pure forest. Sickness and birth defects rose dramatically among the Indian population. Eventually, they realized what was happening, not only to their land, but also to them. When they revolted, the garimpieros put them down brutally . The news was largely ignored by the outside world. Then one day, miners killed and mutilated sixteen Indians in what was described as a prelude to genocide. Many tribesmen were beheaded. Environmental and social groups called attention to the atrocity, but the pressure was not enough to prevent its continuation. The brutalities continued unchecked.
    For this, more than any other reason, Castelo Branco kept a low profile, preferring to keep his name out of the papers. Behind the scenes, he bribed and coerced lawmakers to tilt the scales in favor of unregulated mining. While his company wasn't directly involved with the first massacre, he retained his own cadre of thugs to brutally enforce his domination over the