{"id":18242,"date":"2014-10-01T10:08:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=18242"},"modified":"2015-12-21T15:54:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T18:54:31","slug":"vila-uniao-de-curicica-marches-against-brt-transolimpica-evictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=18242","title":{"rendered":"Vila Uni\u00e3o de Curicica Marches Against BRT TransOl\u00edmpica Evictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The first major act of resistance by\u00a0Vila Uni\u00e3o de Curicica<\/a>, a\u00a0community that lies on the path of the TransOlimpica Bus Rapid Transit line<\/a>,\u00a0took place on Saturday September 27.\u00a0Originally marked to receive upgrading and infrastructure through the Morar Carioca favela upgrading program<\/a>, the neighborhood is now to be removed entirely for the new Olympic transit line<\/a> that stretches north-south between Deodoro and Barra da Tijuca.<\/p>\n

Residents gathered outside the local establishment Bar do Divino at 10am and made their way through the neighborhood eventually arriving at the existing BRT route on Estrada dos Bandeirantes. This made for a\u00a0peaceful, but stark encounter between protesters and BRT passengers on passing buses, who could be seen through the tinted glass, turning in their seats to observe\u00a0the demonstration.<\/p>\n

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

The mobilization of\u00a0Vila Uni\u00e3o got off to a late start, in part due to how\u00a0the community was misled about its future by Mayor Eduardo Paes’<\/a> administration, but also due to lack of engagement\u00a0in questioning removals\u00a0by the Neighborhood Association, the official body responsible for representing residents. The resistance has thus been organized by a small group of\u00a0fearless residents who insist they were not consulted and\u00a0their voices haven’t been heard. Robson, a 37 year old father of two, is one of the leaders and told TV Record<\/em>: “We are not requesting anything but the law, we are asking for what is just.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nVia a truck-mounted megaphone, those marching encouraged residents to come out and join the demonstration. However, many participants felt the majority of onlookers fear there will be repercussions<\/a> if they participate in the resistance<\/a>. Despite evidence to the contrary<\/a>\u00a0time and again<\/a> across the city<\/a> in recent years, many believe fighting eviction<\/a>\u00a0will jeopardize their chance to receive just compensation for their home.<\/p>\n

Many of those marching on Saturday\u00a0have been in Vila Uni\u00e3o for nearly 30 years, since its founding. Jonas Soares, part of this founding cohort of residents, explained that “from the beginning, the [Neighborhood] Association has not been helping us, it’s been helping the city government to remove everyone.”<\/p>\n

Jonas’ sister, Raquel, exemplifies those\u00a0whose livelihood is distinctly attached to the community: she owns three stores in the area.<\/p>\n

“[In public housing] it’s all residential. What will I do with just an apartment and no income from my stores?” she asked. Jorge, a long-time resident of 29 years, typifies those who simply want fair compensation should he be forced out. His current home in Vila Uni\u00e3o is 150m2<\/sup>, while the apartments in Col\u00f4nia Juliano Moreira<\/a>, where residents are to be resettled, are a mere 38m2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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

Another resident, Luiza, also living in Vila Uni\u00e3o\u00a0for 30 years, explained why participation<\/a> in the resistance has been limited: “Why don’t the majority of residents come? They don’t come to the protest<\/a> because they are afraid, because they have heard if they join the protest they will end up without their homes\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>an apartment–they think they’ll end up in the street. It’s a lack of information,” she concluded.<\/p>\n

This sentiment has left\u00a0many hesitant to speak on record about the situation at all. Just as it does for Raquel, eviction to a new apartment creates new problems for Luiza: “My son is getting married and was going to build his home on top of mine. We can’t do this now because we’re leaving. It changed our plans for the future.”<\/p>\n

State Representative Janira Rocha was also present and spoke during the march. She claimed “the number of participants today doesn’t reflect the consensus that exists within a large portion of the community.” Like some residents, she attributed this to a general fear among residents of area militias<\/a>, which have been an increasingly troubling\u00a0phenomenon in Rio’s peripheries<\/a>\u00a0in the past decade. Militias are often involved with local and state\u00a0representatives and Rocha pointed out that “the government uses this fear politically, to impede the mobilization of the community” enabling it to\u00a0carry out projects more easily.<\/p>\n

More broadly, people echoed the same accusations heard in Vila Autodromo<\/a>: that the local government is too closely aligned\u00a0with real-estate developers and have teamed up to systematically remove favelas from the Jacarepagu\u00e1 area–essentially using the 2016 Olympics<\/a> as leverage for a land-grab. In fact, the area is increasingly being referred to and classified as “northern Barra da Tijuca,”\u00a0the wealthy beachside neighborhood resemblant of Miami that provides much of Mayor Paes’ financial and voting base.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The first major act of resistance by\u00a0Vila Uni\u00e3o de Curicica, a\u00a0community that lies on the path of the TransOlimpica Bus Rapid Transit line,\u00a0took place on Saturday September 27.\u00a0Originally marked to receive […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":18245,"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":[1293,1267,1736,1288,1290,1333,335,329,1329],"tags":[9,225,756,581,272,11,65,26,25,569,869,1259,5,152,18,10,270,592,21],"writer":[1416],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-gentrificationwatch","9":"category-1736","10":"category-highlight","11":"category-civilsociety","12":"category-event-reports","13":"category-policies","14":"category-solutions","15":"category-by-international-observers","16":"tag-9","17":"tag-barra-da-tijuca","18":"tag-community-organizing","19":"tag-curicica","20":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","21":"tag-forced-evictions","22":"tag-gentrification","23":"tag-housing-rights","24":"tag-human-rights","25":"tag-jacarepagua","26":"tag-lives-cannot-be-replaced-in-public-housing","27":"tag-mega-events","28":"tag-olympics","29":"tag-participation","30":"tag-protest","31":"tag-real-estate-speculation","32":"tag-resistance","33":"tag-vila-uniao-de-curicica","34":"tag-west-zone","35":"writer-ian-waldron"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18242","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18242"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=18242"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=18242"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=18242"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=18242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}