Itaú e o (esque)cimento: mineração, memória e justiça em Itaú de Minas-MG (2004-2019)

Abstract

This Environmental History study traces the impacts of a mining company while simultaneously uncovering the mysteries surrounding the official memory constructed about it. The cement factory located in Itaú de Minas, Minas Gerais, has exploited the region since 1939, initially under the name Companhia de Cimento Portland Itaú and, since 1977, as Votorantim Cimentos. This enterprise overrides laws through economic and political power, exerting strong influence over regulatory institutions. The history of the factory with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, due to the environmental damage it causes, will demonstrate this: it pays small fines and obtains a “blank check” to pollute. In 2004, a neighboring resident reported the pollution of the Córrego do Ferro and the air. In 2006, another case began, related to the spilling of mud from the hydroelectric dam gates into the São João River. Later, in 2013, another case was initiated due to emissions of pollutants above the limits permitted by law. At the intersection of these environmental cases—which extended until 2019—with newspapers, photographs, reports, academic and literary texts, and even calendars, this text evokes experiences that reveal different memories and provides a new perspective for telling the history of Itaú de Minas and of the cement factory.