Furnas Dam Furnas hidroeletric plant was build in the sixties as a plan to expand the country industrialization, which lived the fear of a colapse for lack of electricity. At the time it was the largest plant in Latin America, having larger plants only the mightiful powers of the time, United States and Soviet Union. It created a huge artifial lake in the rivers grande and sapucai, many people lost their lands and towns got underwater, there were people who moved to other states after losing their houses, highlands were less fertile and only became productive years later with the inserction of modern agriculture techniques, in my town there was a guy who even went nuts after losing his land and spent the rest of his days begging for money. Many people did not find fair the idenization paid and spent years in the courts to receive only a few bucks because it was times of high inflation. This dam allowed the industry to grow, together with many others built during the military regime but part of our history today lays underwater.