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Latest News
  • [ April 10, 2026 ] There’s Blood in the Palmeiras Favela: The Cry for Help Police Chose Not to Hear in São Gonçalo’s Salgueiro Favela Complex #UPPWatch
  • [ April 8, 2026 ] ‘While Water Is Scarce, Profits Abound!’ On World Water Day, Outraged Movements Demand Right to Water in Front of Águas do Rio, Rio de Janeiro’s Private Utility, and Call for Restatization *Highlight
  • [ April 2, 2026 ] ‘International Favelas Conference’ Promotes a (dis)Integrated City: From Erasing Favela Residents to Global Marketing [OPINION] #ParticipationWatch
  • [ March 31, 2026 ] Rio Civil Society Forms Front to Defend Trees From City Hall #ParticipationWatch
  • [ March 29, 2026 ] Award-Winning Middle School in Penha Favela Hosts Gardening Collective Action Engaging Passionate Young Environmental Leaders *Highlight
Homestate violence

state violence

#UPPWatch

There’s Blood in the Palmeiras Favela: The Cry for Help Police Chose Not to Hear in São Gonçalo’s Salgueiro Favela Complex

By Margarida Martins • Translation by Sia Kulkarni • April 10, 2026

Clique aqui para Português The Palmeiras community, in Complexo do Salgueiro, a cluster of favelas in the Greater Rio municipality of São Gonçalo, became the scene of a crime that exposes the brutal face of […]

*Highlight

Meet the CIEPs: In Rio de Janeiro, An Ahead-of-Its-Time Education Policy Turns 40 Having Resisted Decades of Dismantling

By Fabio Leon • Translation by Juliet Hussell • February 28, 2026

Clique aqui para Português 2025 marked four decades since the founding of the Integrated Centers for Public Education (CIEPs), which were created to revolutionize public education policy in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Criticized […]

#MediaWatch

2025 Retrospective of Top International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas

By Oksana Polańska • December 26, 2025

Clique aqui para Português From 2013 to 2023, RioOnWatch ran the Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas series. It began, quite symptomatically, with the Worst International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas: 2013, […]

#UPPWatch

‘There’s No Such Thing as Normal After a Massacre’: One Week After Police Mega-Operation Kills 121 People, Residents From Complexos do Alemão and Penha Speak Out

By Felipe Lucena • Translation by Ujwala Murthy • November 15, 2025

Clique aqui para Português In the early morning of October 28, 2025, 2,500 Civil Police and Military Police officers entered the Penha and Alemão favela complexes for a mega-operation that became the deadliest in the […]

According to one of the recent poll, 87% of Rio's favelas residents supposedly support the police operation that led to the deadliest massacre in Rio de Janeiro's History. Nevertheless, nation-wide favela-led post-massacre protests have shown otherwise. The sign reads 'Resident, Not a Criminal.' Photo: Vinícius Ribeiro
#MediaWatch

Why the Pre-Electoral Opinion Polling Published Following Rio de Janeiro’s ‘Mega Police Operation’ Is Misleading

By Scott Salmon • November 7, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On Tuesday, October 28, Brazil’s deadliest police operation resulted in over 120 people dead, leaving bodies behind wherever they fell, strewn for neighbors and families to retrieve, in the Alemão and […]

Posts pagination

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RioOnWatch’s anti-racist reporting series won silver in the 2022 inaugural The Anthem Awards, in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category among Best Local Awareness Programs.
A Project of

About

In May 2010, Catalytic Communities launched what was originally Rio Olympics Neighborhood Watch (hence RioOnWatch), a program to bring visibility to favela community voices in the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. This news site, RioOnWatch.org, grew into a much-needed and unique reference featuring favela perspectives on the urban transformation of Rio. With diverse and deeply interlinked articles by a mix of community reporters, resident opinions, solidarity reporters, international observers, and academic researchers, we work to engender a more accurate picture of favelas, their contributions to the city, and the potential of favela-led community development in Rio and around the world.

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10 Years! Check Out Our Story:

Awards

Special Thanks

Fundação Heinrich Böll Brasil
World Habitat
Fideicomiso de la Tierra Caño Martín Peña
Pastoral de Favelas
Center for CLT Innovation
Global Land Alliance
Ecocity Builders
Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
SDSU Behner Stiefel Center
The Rio Times
Forum Grita Baixada
Beto Paixão Graphic Design
Architecture Museum of Vienna
Yale School of Architecture

  • Home
    • Highlighted Stories
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    • Sanitation
  • Violations
    • Human Rights
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    • Police Violence
    • Government Neglect
  • Organizing
    • Community Organizing
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    • Resistance
    • Sustainability
    • Participation
    • Protest
    • Culture
    • Responsible Tourism
  • Content Map
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      • Energy Justice Series
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    • Video Stories
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