Assassination in Jacarezinho: An Indignant Neighbor Responds
Apr 7th
For the original text in Portuguese by Léo Lima in Favela em Foco, click here.
On the evening of April 4th 2013, around 9pm, in the area known as Beira do Rio in the favela of Jacarezinho, heavily armed police from the community’s Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) were unable to control the confusion among residents of Pontilhão and lost control of the situation, resulting in the death of Aliélson Nogueira, 21 years old, shot in the back of the neck while eating a hot dog.
Following aggressive stop and search police action on possible suspects of drug trafficking, residents rebelled against the police and–as is More >
Colônia Juliano Moreira in the Dark Over TransOlímpica, Public Works & Compulsory Crack Treatment
Apr 5th
“There’s a total lack of transparency on the part of the authorities with Colônia and its residents. We want answers,” asserts Juliana Moura Marques, resident of Colônia Juliano Moreira in Jacarepaguá and member of the community’s E-Colônia movement.
For the last few months, the group has been calling for explanations from the City government over the change in route of the TransOlímpica BRT highway to pass through the neighborhood, abandoned public works and the proposed use of the community’s historic psychiatric hospital for the compulsory treatment of crack addicts. They organized a meeting for this purpose on Friday March 22nd, yet no one from More >
A History of Favela Upgrades Part III: Morar Carioca in Vision and Practice (2008 – Present)
Apr 2nd
This is Part 3 of a three-part series on the History of Favela Upgrades in Rio. Click for Part 1 and Part 2.
The cable car in Complexo de Alemão, opened in 2011, was funded through the federal Growth Acceleration Program (PAC).
In Rio, the end of the 2000s brought a trickle of funding to a few delayed upgrading projects from the Favela-Bairro program and its spinoffs, the Bairrinho and Grandes Favelas programs. During this time the federal Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) began to install public works in favelas as well. These tended to be attention-grabbing projects and those visible from the edges of communities such as the cable car in Complexo More >
Visions of Urban Space at Cais do Valongo Capoeira Circle
Mar 29th
For original article in Portuguese by Ricardo Nascimento in Jogo de Mandingo click here.
A vision of the tropical paradise
The city of Rio de Janeiro has always been the postcard image for Brazil. A significant portion of the symbols of Brazilianness that now form part of the Brazilian imagination and circulate around the consumer-driven globe comes from Rio. The Rio Carnival, samba, Christ the Redeemer, football; all of these elements contribute to the entertainment and leisure industry at an international level.
Hermano Viana, in his book ‘The Mystery of Samba’, highlights a historic encounter which occurred in Rio in the early twentieth More >
Demolition of Buildings to House Bumba Residents has Begun
Mar 28th
For the original report in Portuguese in O Globo click here.
The buildings were to be inhabited by the 450 families that lost their homes in Niterói’s tragedy of 2010.
Zilda Arns housing complex, built to house people made homeless in landslides in Morro do Bumba, found to have cracks. Photo: Pedro Kirilos / Agência O Globo
This Saturday marked the beginning of the demolition of blocks 3 and 5 of the Zilda Arns buildings I & II. Cracks have been found in the buildings, which compromise the safety of their structures. According to the Caixa Econômica Federal bank, which released R$27 million More >
