{"id":22228,"date":"2015-05-31T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=22228"},"modified":"2015-06-02T11:03:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T14:03:51","slug":"despite-millions-paid-out-in-compensation-the-city-is-still-not-done-with-vila-autodromo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=22228","title":{"rendered":"Despite Millions Paid Out in Compensation, The City Can’t Get Rid of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the original in Portuguese by Ruben Berta, published in O Globo,\u00a0click\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Surrounded by rubble, approximately 170 families are still living in the community neighboring the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca.<\/h3>\n

RIO\u2013The story of the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a> community, which neighbors the future Olympic Park, starts in the 1960s with a few haphazard occupations cropping up along the edges of the deserted Jacarepagu\u00e1 Lagoon, and is currently in the middle of\u00a0a chapter that could well be called \u201cThe Contrarians.\u201d Despite demonstrating his dissatisfaction in doing so, over recent months Mayor Eduardo Paes has conceded to give\u00a0millions in compensation to those who have vacated property on the edge of the water or in the way of the construction of new roads. The highest values\u2014up to R$3 million (US$1 million) each\u2014however, have\u00a0not left those who had to leave happy, as those recipients are middle class people who owned commercial properties or homes that would not be out of place in any condominium in Barra. The story ends with approximately 170 families\u2014for the most part families in need\u2014that still remain in the favela, surrounded by the rubble of all that has been demolished. It is highly likely that the community will still be there at the time of the 2016 Olympic Games<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Court Battle Since\u00a01993<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While engaged in an endless court battle\u2014which started in 1993 and to this day remains unresolved\u2014the City decided to open the public coffers in order to expropriate property in the region. Just from November last year until now, according to a survey conducted by the office of City Council member\u00a0Teresa Bergher (PSDB) at the request of GLOBO<\/em>, no\u00a0less than R$95 million (US$30 million) were\u00a0released to compensate 116 people. Within this group, 33, or less than one third, received amounts over\u00a0R$1 million (US$300,000). Their combined total was R$55 million (US$17 million), or nearly two thirds of the overall amount.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find [paying high compensations] absurd and an unacceptable business. Yet, the fact remains that at some point someone came and legalized\u00a0the situation of these people. At a certain moment in time, a band\u00a0of NGOs, international organizations, political parties and public defenders\u00a0defended these guys\u2026 And this is the result: people who do not need it are receiving a fortune to vacate a public area. Demagoguery rules, hypocrisy comes, and this is what happens. And we were only able to\u00a0empty the area after lots of negotiation. There’ve been six years of negotiating this,\u201d said Mayor Eduardo Paes.<\/p>\n

Among the 33 who received more than R$1 million, there are several curious cases. The largest amount for a property went to business owner and race car driver Cl\u00e1udio Capparelli: R$2,992,341 (US$947,334). The compensation was paid to reimburse him for the competition car workshop he set up more than 20 years ago close to Jacarepagu\u00e1 Lagoon. Showing a great deal of dissatisfaction, Capparelli says he had bought possession of the land and did not want to leave, but was forced out by the City.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wanted to leave there. We were forced to do so by a type of guerrilla tactic by the City who started to make access difficult and set up a series of obstacles<\/a>. Life became very difficult, we were suffocating. So, I decided to give in<\/a> when we arrived at a value that I felt was reasonable. I did not take into account that my property was a business and how much the move would disrupt that. I only took into account the size of the building and how much it was going to cost to set up a new workshop in Barra. This is not going to come out at less than R$3 million (US$1 million),\u201d the businessman complained. He added: \u201cAs a taxpayer, I really believe there could have been a better way out than these\u00a0compensations. It would be much cheaper, for example, to re-urbanize the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the list of those who received the largest sums, there is also ex-pilot Lucas Molo, who was compensated with R$2.3 million (US$728,148), also for a workshop which, according to the City, was built on a protected area of the lagoon. He protested solely by means of an official statement, stating he was against the dispossession, yet ended up agreeing to leave primarily as he does not see a future in motor racing in Rio. Currently, Molo lives in California in the United States, where he owns an MMA gym.<\/p>\n

Two officers from the Military Police also appeared on the list of the most highly compensated: Jos\u00e9 Cleidson Ramos Reis, from BOPE, with R$1.299 million (US$411,245) and colonel of the reserve Jos\u00e9 de Oliveira Penteado (R$2.2 million or US$696,490). Penteado is notorious\u00a0for having been the BOPE commander during the hijacking of bus 174 that ended with the hijacker and one hostage dead. Cleidson was sought for comment through the Military Police’s press office, which said it could not respond to a request\u00a0about a particular\u00a0officer. Penteado was not available for comment concerning the compensation.<\/p>\n

Even an environmentalist from S\u00e3o Paulo was compensated: Mauro Frederico Wilken, president of the Ecological Society of Santa Branca (an inland city in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo) and alternate member of the National Council of the Environment (Conama), was compensated for R$1.199 million for a property along the protected area of the lagoon. He was unavailable for comment.<\/p>\n

Advisor of the Rio de Janeiro Bar Association (OAB-RJ)\u00a0and a lawyer specializing in property law, Ant\u00f4nio Ricardo Corr\u00eaa, confirmed that in situations of consolidated irregular occupations, the public authority has no other option but to compensate or award another dwelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law does not give right to property when a public area has been occupied,\u201d he said. “But, if there was\u00a0a period during which the government\u00a0allowed people to build\u00a0and make improvements to their homes, then those people must be compensated in order to remove them.”<\/p>\n

Of the 760 properties listed by the City in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, 590 have already been vacated. Of these, 336 were families in need that went to the public housing complex Parque Carioca<\/a>. The rest were financially compensated. Despite the evictions, in aerial photos it is still possible to see that the favela, which is next to the site of a future hotel for the media and International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) of the Olympic Park, still remains. There is a lot of rubble spread out. One of the clearest pieces of land has come to be used as an improvised\u00a0parking lot for Olympic construction workers.<\/p>\n

Wearing a black t-shirt with the words \u201cSOS Vila Aut\u00f3dromo,\u201d Luiz Cl\u00e1udio Silvo, a physical education teacher, is among those who are resisting the move. A lover of sport, he said the Olympics is fast becoming the biggest nightmare of his life.<\/p>\n

\"Resident<\/a>
Resident of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, Luiz Cl\u00e1udio Silva, walking through the community. Photo by Ant\u00f4nio Scorza \/ Globo Agency<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat you see here today is a war scene. Why not take care of the community and leave a social legacy?\u201d he asked, remembering that in 2013 the residents themselves developed\u00a0a prize-winning re-urbanization project proposal, with experts from federal universities UFF and UFRJ projecting\u00a0that it would cost little more than R$13 million (US$4,115,622) to implement.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor Paes Admits Maintaining the Community<\/h3>\n

Doorman Francisco Marinho says he struggled\u00a013 years to acquire every brick for his house and has no intention of leaving. He has been refusing to let City workers measure his house for a future calculation for compensation.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen we work for the wealthy people of Barra, we smell. Nobody wants a favela next to the Olympics. But I have made my life here. I have fought to build every wall. I did not go to one of the apartments they were offering because I know that someone from the favela does not know how to live in an apartment with the taxes and all the costs involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite all the dispossessions, Mayor Eduardo Paes admits that among the 170 that still remain, those that are not in the way of the new roads or alongside the lagoon can stay. However, when asked, the City was unable to say how many people this applied to. Paes also admitted to\u00a0upgrading the area by bringing in missing services.<\/p>\n

Public defender\u00a0Jo\u00e3o Helv\u00e9cio de Carvalho, who is accompanying\u00a0the case of the residents in need, says he hopes Paes will allow\u00a0those who wish to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope there will be dialogue and that this intention is fulfilled. And that those who stay, stay in a dignified manner.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the original in Portuguese by Ruben Berta, published in O Globo,\u00a0click\u00a0here.\u00a0 Surrounded by rubble, approximately 170 families are still living in the community neighboring the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca. RIO\u2013The story of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":22231,"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":[1293,1736,1288,336],"tags":[127,272,11,1513,5,851,69,4,21],"writer":[1646],"translator":[1537],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-highlight","10":"category-violations","11":"tag-compensation","12":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","13":"tag-forced-evictions","14":"tag-market-rate-compensation","15":"tag-olympics","16":"tag-parque-carioca","17":"tag-public-defenders","18":"tag-vila-autodromo","19":"tag-west-zone","20":"writer-ruben-berta","21":"translator-wendy-turner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22228","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\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22228"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=22228"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=22228"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=22228"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=22228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}