{"id":12103,"date":"2013-11-12T08:37:50","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T11:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=12103"},"modified":"2018-02-02T12:51:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T15:51:12","slug":"vila-autodromo-responds-to-forged-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=12103","title":{"rendered":"Vila Aut\u00f3dromo Responds to Forged Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Por<\/strong>tugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, November 7, 100 residents and supporters of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a> gathered in the rain to protest outside City Hall, a response to the City\u2019s latest tactic to undermine their resistance to removal. The week prior, on October 30, it appeared city officials had orchestrated a protest<\/a> of approximately 20 residents who want to leave their homes in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo for apartments in Parque Carioca<\/a>, the designated resettlement housing complex. Participants recounted that city employees \u201cmobilized\u201d several families who are considering resettlement housing and transported them on buses to City Hall.<\/p>\n

Longtime Vila Aut\u00f3dromo resident and activist Maria da Penha described the Thursday protest as \u201ca response to the farce that the City staged.” She continued: \u201cWe are here to demonstrate that Vila Aut\u00f3dromo does not want to leave.\u201d Community members marched around City Hall chanting, \u201cThe city government lies, we don\u2019t want removals!\u201d They carried banners illustrating the central demands of the resistance effort and identified the forged protest as further evidence of the mayor\u2019s intention to remove Vila Aut\u00f3dromo in its entirety.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s protest–in juxtaposition with the seemingly staged event a week prior–highlights a trend in the City\u2019s position toward Vila Aut\u00f3dromo: the mayor publicly says he is negotiating the community’s permanence while in practice he is overlooking viable proposals that minimize removals; city officials are employing coercive tactics\u00a0to convince residents to sign away their homes; police action creates a climate of fear and mistrust, which have inhibited protests both in and outside the community; and media giant Globo’s reporting gives huge attention to efforts to remove while ignoring or undermining resistance efforts.<\/p>\n

Ongoing Resistance Efforts Include Updated People’s Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vila Aut\u00f3dromo is a symbol of resistance to forced removal<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro, having fought and won battles against eviction over 20 years. In recent years, the westward expansion exclusive shopping malls and luxury condominiums in Barra da Tijuca\u00a0has left the community’s land extremely valuable for real estate developers. The community received a 99-year \u201cconcession of use\u201d land title in 1994, but has been threatened with removal by a series of ever-shifting justifications related to the future Olympic Park. With the law on their side, residents have remained adamant and vocal in their demand to remain, and their case is still in the courts.<\/p>\n

Alcides Faustino Gomes, an elderly resident of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo that participated in the protest against removals, stated, \u201cI don\u2019t want to leave because, however simple it may be, that is my house and my life,\u201d playing on the title of Brazil\u2019s federal housing program Minha Casa, Minha Vida<\/a>. \u201cYou take cattle and move it to wherever you want, but not human beings. We have our own will, our owns desires and dreams.\u201d He elaborated that the monthly utility and maintenance costs of the new Parque Carioca relocation housing will be impossible for families earning the minimum salary.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Eduardo Paes ignored Vila Aut\u00f3dromo’s\u00a0People’s Plan<\/a> to sell the land to a consortium,\u201d read one of the banners held by protesters on Thursday. This refers to the Public-Private Partnership that will facilitate the post-Games transfer of 75%<\/a> of the Olympic site to private real estate developers. Protest organizers argued that a process of \u201csocial cleansing\u201d is underway in Barra da Tijuca, in which the poor are removed from desirable land: \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t the mayor make improvements and upgrade Vila Aut\u00f3dromo with basic sanitation?\u201d Maria Melo, a long-time resident, asked.<\/p>\n

Insisting on removal, the mayor has consistently disregarded the People’s Plan for Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, a community-designed upgrading plan that has received international recognition. The proposal would allow for the permanence of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo at a significantly lower cost than relocation and in ways that do not infringe upon the Olympic project. Additionally, the People’s Plan minimizes the number of families removed and plans for their resettlement within the community.<\/p>\n

Despite the\u00a0August apology and announcement<\/a>\u00a0that the mayor would allow the community\u2019s permanence, his most recent proposal would remove 278 families. This plan calls for several arbitrary and unnecessary roads that slice through the community to provide private elevated access for athletes and journalists onto the Olympic site. Urban planners suspect this design would force the remaining 150 residents to leave, due to ensuing water drainage problems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In response, the team behind the People’s Plan<\/a>–a partnership between residents and urban planners and architects from public universities–issued an updated design that met the requirements for the access roads and pedestrian bridge. The People’s Plan would only remove 30 families and allocates space for their resettlement within the community.\u00a0A side-by-side comparison shows how easily the City\u2019s plan can be redrawn to minimize the number of removals.<\/p>\n

Showing consistent willingness to work within the demands laid out by the City, the design team of the People’s Plan has continuously designed alternatives that would remove fewer houses and upgrade the community in a dignified way. Residents and community advocates fear the tactic of partial removal for roads and other installations will inevitably result in the complete removal of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo. Examples in other communities have shown that demolished areas create\u00a0unbearable conditions<\/a>\u00a0that force out those who remain.<\/p>\n

Coercive City Tactics\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In recent months, various coercive tactics<\/a>\u00a0have been employed in housing negotiations with Vila Aut\u00f3dromo. City officials, including the sub-mayor for Barra de Tijuca and Jacarepagu\u00e1, Tiago Mohamed<\/a>, have been circulating on a daily basis in an attempt to convince residents to sign up for the Parque Carioca housing and making false promises<\/a> about the size, costs, and regulations of the apartments they will be receiving. According to the latest release from the team working on the People’s Plan: \u201cIn order to convince them to leave their houses, the City is persuading residents to sign an agreement that does not give any guarantee to the families and obliges them to give up their rights. The document is worded in such a way that the resident who signs it ends up proposing the demolition of their own home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maria Melo was considering accepting the Parque Carioca housing until she attended the meeting with the Mayor in RioCentro<\/a>\u00a0and observed that residents are being deceived: \u201cBefore, when I was considering negotiating and leaving, I thought things were being done in a legal and honest way, but they are not.” She went on, “When you arrive at the sub-mayor\u2019s office, there is a lot of pressure. They tell you to sign the document to guarantee your apartment and if you say \u2018I don\u2019t know yet,\u2019 or \u2018I want to find out the value of my home first,\u2019 they respond that you run the risk of losing the offer. They put a lot of pressure on you, so many people give up and accept the apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community leaders also affirmed that many residents involved in last week\u2019s \u201cprotest\u201d were misled by city officials. \u201cResidents reported that some were angry that they had been tricked. [They were told] they were going to a meeting with the mayor, and when they got on the bus they realized it was a demonstration,\u201d Maria da Penha recounts. Additionally, rumors circulate that the mayor\u2019s allies in the community receive various forms of compensation.<\/p>\n

Disproportionate Police Force at Thursday’s protest<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Recent developments in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo evidence a broader pattern of urban governance that values elite interests over the rights of citizens, including the right to protest and to a free press that is not bound to any center of power.<\/p>\n

Jane Nascimento, director of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo’s neighborhood association, spoke of the inconsistencies in the mayor’s receptivity to the protests. \u201cLast week (during the “mock” protest), the mayor invited an entourage of residents into his office to be heard,” she asserted. “Today, they locked the gates and called the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Although police initially accompanied the peaceful demonstration, aggressive verbal confrontations began when protesters \u00a0attempted to take over a multi-lane section of the major thoroughfare in front of City Hall.\u00a0The arrival of a minibus carrying more officers marked a further escalation, as police began pushing elderly women out of the way.<\/p>\n

Dem\u00e9trio Martins, Horto<\/a> resident and activist with the Favela N\u00e3o Se Cala<\/a> movement, who was filming the conflict, described that once the commander arrived, the police were able to exert disproportionate force against the protesters, none of whom were resisting.<\/p>\n

The conflict led to the arrest of Popular Committee activist, Vitor Mariano. Speaking with reporters at the police station after his arrest, Mariano recalled that the police acted with excessive violence even as he submitted to the unfounded arrest: \u201cI maintained that the people were within their right to free demonstration and he arrested me for disobedience and resistance [to arrest].\u201d He was released a few hours later when video footage proved he had not violated any law.<\/p>\n

Asymmetrical Media Coverage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Participants of Thursday’s protest were outraged that the Globo news network had covered the earlier \u201cprotest\u201d extensively on TV and in print, publishing an article titled \u201cResidents Request to Leave Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>.\u201d With reference to the image of the protest that Globo published (photo right), Sandra Isidoro da Silva, a long-time Vila Aut\u00f3dromo resident who wants to remain, commented: “That was a setup. Those signs are not ours and some of those people are not from Vila Autodromo.” In contrast, the Globo coverage of Thursday\u2019s demonstration against removal was a\u00a0one-sentence traffic notice<\/a>\u00a0noting that protestors had closed several lanes of Avenida Presidente Vargas and a brief\u00a0two paragraph report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mainstream media coverage of the two protests points to an ongoing effort to ignore or delegitimize resistance efforts. The promotion of Parque Carioca housing and a spotlight on those residents wanting to leave are key strategies. Maria Melo observed: \u201cWhen the protest is in favor of the City, they show it. When it is against, they don\u2019t show anything, and last week this was very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Vila Aut\u00f3dromo’s Neighborhood Association President, Altair Guimar\u00e3es, alleges that Globo intentionally ignores him: \u201cThey will say that I don\u2019t answer my phone, but I spoke with them and invited them here today!\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this invitation, a camera crew only arrived at the protest after the reports that an arrest had been made. Protesters and residents were so distrustful of Globo\u2019s manipulation tactics that they decided no one should give an interview unless it would be aired live. Unable to comply and angered by the reactions to their presence, the reporters left the scene almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Residents are enraged over the misrepresentation of the community’s wishes. The figures in Globo’s article on the October 30 protest, for example,\u00a0falsely purport that only 27 of the community’s 600 families are still resisting the City\u2019s proposal. However, a residents\u2019 commission has been going door-to-door registering numbers accurately and in the first few weeks have already confirmed that 256 families want to remain.<\/p>\n

Residents continue to hold weekly meetings in the community to fortify their struggle. On Sunday, November 10, the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Dom Orani Tempesta, led a mass in the community in support of the resistance effort<\/a> of those families that wish to stay.<\/p>\n

Maria L\u00facia de Pontes, a Rio de Janeiro State Public Defender from the Land and Housing Nucleus recently issued a statement that read: “The court ruling and legislation related to land tenure must be respected by the Rio de Janeiro city government, allowing families to finally live in peace with recognized land titles, urbanized streets, and public services provided.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Thursday afternoon, November 7, 100 residents and supporters of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo gathered in the rain to protest outside City Hall, a response to the City\u2019s latest tactic to undermine their […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":12117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1736,336,1329],"tags":[190,756,258,272,11,282,26,1259,5,1292,1866,18,529,10,1892,1891,206,4,365],"writer":[1020,1770],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-violations","10":"category-by-international-observers","11":"tag-comite-popular","12":"tag-community-organizing","13":"tag-community-solution","14":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","15":"tag-forced-evictions","16":"tag-housing","17":"tag-housing-rights","18":"tag-mega-events","19":"tag-olympics","20":"tag-organizing","21":"tag-peoples-plan","22":"tag-protest","23":"tag-public-works","24":"tag-real-estate-speculation","25":"tag-sub-mayor","26":"tag-tiago-mohamed","27":"tag-upgrading","28":"tag-vila-autodromo","29":"tag-zero-participation","30":"writer-courtney-allen-crumpler","31":"writer-kate-steiker-ginzberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=12103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}