brAzil
A WoNDerful plACe To liVe
As brAzil prepAres To hosT boTh The WorlD Cup AND The olYmpiCs, AmNesTY is JoiNiNg forCes WiTh people iN rio De JANeiro’s FAVELAS To sTop Them beiNg forCeD ouT of Their homes.
“T
hey are removing it little by little. Later on they’ll take away the rest.” Alessandra Lins is talking about Providência, where she lives with her husband and two children. Established in the late 1800s on a hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro, this neighbourhood is thought to be the Brazil’s oldest favela, or slum. Since then, small houses and winding streets have covered the hill, with views over the city’s port. But 800 families here – including Alessandra’s – are now worried that they will soon be forced to leave. Like thousands of other families across the city, they are being threatened with eviction. Why? Because Rio is busy preparing to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. And as part of the city’s big vision for these two sports mega events, large-scale projects, such as road-building and urban regeneration, are well underway.
A posiTiVe legACY? After the trophies have been won, the medals awarded and the sports fans have gone home, such projects could in principle leave a very positive legacy for Rio. But for people who face having their homes demolished in the process, they have become a threat. Many people in Providência feel that they are being pushed out because their community doesn’t fit with
6 Wire [ Jul/Aug 2013 ]
the authorities’ image of an Olympic city. “Providência is seen as a negative point,” says Alessandra. She thinks her own and her neighbours’ homes are simply in the way, built close to the port and one of the main thoroughfares, Presidente Vargas Avenue. The port is now the target of a large urban regeneration project called “Wonderful Port”. The plan is to encourage massive regional investment, modernizing the port, building museums and galleries, business buildings and stimulating tourism. Alessandra says the authorities “see the slum as an obstacle, right there in the middle of the port area”. Evictions here, and in other parts of the city, have already started. The city authorities are also implementing an initiative called “Carioca Housing Project” in Providência. It includes plans for a cable-car and cliff-railway system, scheduled to be carried out from February 2011 to January 2014 as “part of the legacy of the City Government’s hosting of the Olympic Games”.
uNDer pressure But many people are skeptical about the way this and similar projects are being carried out. When evictions began in Providência in 2011, dozens of families left their homes in return for financial support to cover their rent costs. They were told new apartments
would be built for them to move into in 2012. So far, that hasn’t happened. They now worry that the financial support might be stopped without new housing being available. The families who stayed behind have been left to live among their evicted neighbours’ demolished houses. Piles of rubbish and pools of waste water left behind are attracting insects, making it an increasingly depressing place to live. When Amnesty recently researched the situation there, people also told us they felt threatened, intimidated and pressurized to leave their homes and accept the authorities’ offers of being resettled somewhere else. Things did improve after some residents sought legal assistance from the state’s public defenders. A court ordered the authorities to provide more detailed information about the planned urbanization project and the plan to resettle local residents. They were also told to carry out an impact assessment and to stop the Carioca Housing Project and all evictions in Providência until this study was completed.
To feel pArT of The big VisioN The community is now being supported by many people and organizations, including local NGOs and Amnesty. All have expressed concerns about a lack of