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By Hiparidi Top’Tiro

Hiparidi Top’Tiro is a Xavante leader from the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Since 1996, through the Xavante Warã Association, he has been fighting against the advancement of agrobusiness in and around Indigenous lands in the Cerrado. In November of 2006, he assumed leadership of the Mobilization of Indigenous Peoples of the Cerrado.

On June 4, 2013, 144 Munduruku Indians boarded Brazilian Air Force Planes in Altamira en route to Brasilia to attend talks with the government to address a week-long occupation of the contentious Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River. Amazonian Indians from the Munduruku along with those from the Juruna, Kayapo, Xipaya, Kuruaya, Asurini, Parakana, and Arara tribes have bonded together to occupy the main construction site of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam—a dam costing $14 billion and projected to be the third largest dam in the world.

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