Four years later, is Brumadinho closer to justice?

It has been four years since the tragic collapse of the Brumadinho dam in Brazil. Yet no one has been held accountable for the disaster that claimed the lives of 270 people and caused untold environmental damage. Three victims have yet to be found, and firefighters continue to search at stations that receive material from the affected area.

On January 25, 2019, a dam owned by Vale, Brazil’s largest mining company and a global leader in iron ore production, gave way and unleashed a wave of toxic mud (the equivalent of 5,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools) that swept through the nearby town, engulfing everything in its path. The disaster left behind a trail of destruction that can still be felt today, with families torn apart and communities left reeling in the aftermath.

The collapse occurred at around 1 pm on a Friday afternoon, while many of the workers on site were having lunch. Approximately 13 million cubic meters of iron ore tailings spilled into the surrounding region, affecting nearby communities and causing residents of surrounding towns to evacuate.

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, there was widespread outrage and calls for accountability. Vale, along with its executives and employees, were heavily criticized for their role in the disaster as the company faced backlash for neglecting safety protocols and ignoring warning signs that the dam was at risk of collapse.

Outrage was heightened by the fact that a dam owned by a Vale subsidiary had also collapsed not three years earlier. The two incidents rank as the worst mining disasters in Brazilian history.

In 2018, The Brazilian Report published a in-depth six-part report about the disaster and its causes. Journalists Karla Mendes and Maria Paola de Salvo showed a series of mistakes, neglect, and a lack of respect for the law on behalf of Samarco — as well as the utter failure of Brazilian institutions to hold the company accountable.

Following Brumadinho, the lower house of Congress set up an inquiry in April 2019 to investigate who was responsible for the collapse. The hearings committee’s final report proposed the indictment of Vale, German engineering company Tüv Süd — responsible for erroneously certifying the safety of the dam due to fears of losing Vale as a client — and 22 individuals from the two companies for intentional homicide, intentional bodily harm, and environmental pollution with serious damage to human health and the environment. 

In 2020, state prosecutors in Minas Gerais presented...