A story of slavery -- and space
The United States wants to launch rockets from Brazil.
Story by Terrence McCoy and Heloísa Traiano
Graphics by Júlia Ledur
Photos by Ingrid Barros
March 26, 2021
ALCÂNTARA, Brazil — In her home at the edge of the village, close enough to the launch base that she can see the rockets climb above her roof, Maria José Lima Pinheiro began to tell her story. It was about family. But it was also about space exploration, slavery, the world’s most powerful country and, ultimately, the looming destruction of her community.
They’ve lived here for hundreds of years, the descendants of enslaved Africans, fishing and farming a verdant paradise where land meets sea along Brazil’s north coast. For most of that history, the outside world had left them alone. Then came the Space Age.
By a coincidence of fate, the historically Black villages, called quilombos, sit on what the global aerospace industry considers some of the most valuable real estate on the planet. Less than 200 miles from the equator — the global sweet spot — Alcântara is one of the easiest places on Earth to launch satellites into geostationary orbit.
[They lost the Civil War and fled to Brazil. Their descendants refuse to take down the Confederate flag.]
She was still a child, Pinheiro said, when the government started removing her people to build the Alcântara Launch Center. Now, three decades later, she fears it’s coming back for the rest of them.
The United States in 2019 signed a technology privacy agreement with Brazil that allows the United States to use the nearby Brazilian launch center for commercial and other missions. But the deal, which then-president Donald Trump promised would save “tremendous amounts of money,” could also mean the displacement of nearly 2,100 of Brazil’s poorest people. The Brazilian government last year announced a plan to expand the base by more than 30,000 acres to make room for the additional business. The quilombos would be cleared, officials said in a decree, and their people removed.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/brazil-alcantara-launch-center-quilombo/?itid=hp-top-table-main
Also posted in Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016290642