SÃO PAULO — Brazil’s government emphatically refused on Tuesday to suspend work on a huge hydroelectric dam in the Amazon, despite pleas that the project could displace tens of thousands of indigenous people and cause environmental harm.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of theOrganization of American States, ’had asked Brazil on Friday to halt construction of the Belo Monte dam, slated to be the world’s third largest, until it complied with its legal obligations to consult with indigenous groups.