Ditadura, empresas e repressão a trabalhadores: o caso da hidrelétrica Itaipu Binacional (1975-1987)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyse the relations established between the company Itaipu Binacional and the Brazilian dictatorship in the context of the repression of workers during the construction of the Itaipu hydroelectric plant. Located in a strategic area classified as ‘national security,’ the company structured, through its Special Security and Information Advisory (AESI/Itaipu), a surveillance and control apparatus responsible for implementing repressive practices within the construction site. Among these practices, interrogations and illegal detentions stand out. In addition, AESI/Itaipu monitored workers, compiling dossiers and so-called ‘dirty lists,’ documents containing the names of employees considered ‘subversive,’ which were systematically forwarded to the regime's repressive agencies, such as the National Information Service (SNI) and the Department of Political and Social Order (Dops). The time frame for this investigation covers the period between 1975 and 1987. In 1975, civil works on the dam began, with the recruitment of the first Brazilian and Paraguayan workers, hired by the consortiums of contractors responsible for the construction of lodgings and residential villages. In 1987, one year after the founding of the Union of Workers in the Civil Construction Industries of Foz do Iguaçu, and in the midst of the redemocratization process, the first organized strikes broke out at the construction site, which were harshly repressed with the use of military force, including the presence of Army tanks.