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Brazil: Accountability for Devastating Dam Collapses
MINAS GERAIS, Brazil. In 2019, a mine tailings dam owned by Vale S.A. Corporation collapsed, killing 272 people and releasing toxic sludge into the environment. It devastated 300 acres of native forests and contaminated the Paraopeba River, which thousands of people, including Indigenous communities, depend on. The event, known as the Brumadinho Dam disaster, occurred three years after the company was involved in another catastrophic failure, called the Mariana Dam disaster.
In December, the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission convicted Vale’s former high-level director, Peter Poppinga, for failure to comply with the duty of diligence in the Brumadinho Dam collapse. Poppinga must pay a $4.5 million fine.
ELAW partner Danilo Chammas, a lawyer at Instituto Cordilheira, has worked with his team to represent the association of relatives of the victims of the Brumadinho dam collapse (Associação de Familiares de Vítimas e Atingidos pelo Rompimento da Barragem Mina Córrego do Feijão, AVABRUM). Instituto Cordilheira’s legal team includes Chammas, a human rights lawyer with 25 years of experience; an early-career lawyer, Thabata Pena; and a law student, Pablo Martins.
“For the first time, an individual is being held responsible after the two major tragedies in Minas Gerais. This judgment recognizes serious issues in the company’s management,” says Chammas. “The lack of accountability in the Mariana Dam disaster led to the second collapse.”
The 2015 Mariana Dam disaster is considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history and one of the worst mine tailings dam collapses ever, killing 19 people and spreading pollutants along 415 miles of the Doce River into the Atlantic Ocean.
Chammas called on ELAW’s Law Team to provide resources on corporate criminal liability to support this work.
Police investigations revealed strong evidence of the criminal responsibility of Vale S.A. and the German certifier that issued the dam structure’s stability declaration four months before the collapse.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office charged 16 directors and managers of the companies with murder and environmental crimes in 2020. The companies themselves are also being prosecuted for environmental crimes. Witness hearings are expected to begin in 2025. “This will be a very important stage in criminal proceedings,” points out Chammas. The victims’ lawyers, supported by ELAW, will be able to intervene with questions to the witnesses and requests to the judge.
Instituto Cordilheira’s work aims to enhance the effectiveness of the accountability frameworks and the judicial system to fight impunity and ensure that criminal justice is carried out in the Brumadinho case. “This is not only crucial to punish those responsible for these crimes but to prevent similar catastrophes,” says Chammas.
ELAW will continue collaborating with Danilo and his team to help the victims’ families secure justice and ensure the company is held accountable for these disasters
Letícia Aleixo
Attorney
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide
Please find more information about these organizations and their critical work below:
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Interview with Danilo Chammas. April 16, 2015.
The Observatory of Criminal Actions on the Tragedy in Brumadinho