{"id":24921,"date":"2015-10-23T21:32:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T00:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=24921"},"modified":"2015-12-03T09:51:33","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T12:51:33","slug":"lightning-evictions-continue-in-vila-autodromo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=24921","title":{"rendered":"Lightning Evictions Return to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo Next Door to #Rio2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Around 5 o’clock this morning, Friday October 23, the Municipal Guard policing force and government\u00a0representatives arrived in\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, the\u00a0community bordering\u00a0the Olympic Park in Rio’s\u00a0West Zone<\/a>, to demolish more homes<\/a> in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“The place was full of police [this morning],” long-time resident Jo\u00e3o Felix dos Santos recounted.\u00a0The community Facebook page reported<\/a> that on arrival the Municipal Guard blocked\u00a0off access to a part of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, preventing residents from moving freely around the neighborhood. The area closed\u00a0off included Casa da Nan\u00e3, the former home of Candombl\u00e9 practitioner Heloisa Helena Costa Berto<\/a>, who has fought to protect the sacred site from demolition.<\/p>\n

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

The same Facebook page announced the demolitions of two homes while\u00a0other reports said up to five houses were targeted. Jo\u00e3o said\u00a0“the houses that were destroyed stood in the main area of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo,” which means today’s events will have a big impact on the remaining residents’ sense of place. Residents were reportedly prevented from monitoring the Municipal Guard’s activities\u00a0up close, but word spread that some of the residents’ belongings were still in the homes being destroyed.<\/p>\n

“The City continues to spread terror in\u00a0the community,” residents wrote on Facebook<\/a>. “We are now surrounded and nobody knows for sure what’s going on!”\u00a0The last time there was such a large Municipal Guard presence in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, on June 3, the City’s\u00a0attempted demolition resulted in a confrontation<\/a>\u00a0that left at least six injured.<\/p>\n

Although Vila Aut\u00f3dromo residents have legal titles to their homes, in March\u00a0Mayor Paes<\/a> declared eminent domain\u00a0and marked 58 homes for eviction<\/a>. Today, as in previous occasions of “lightning evictions<\/a>” this year, the City had not\u00a0informed residents of the demolitions ahead of time. Speaking around midday, Jo\u00e3o said some individuals whose homes had been demolished in the morning were still unaware. Resident\u00a0Mariza do Amor Divino was away at a doctor’s appointment when her house was demolished. She had left all her belongings\u2014including essential diabetes medicine\u2014inside. When she returned<\/a>, she discovered her house was now a pile of rubble.\u00a0Those of her belongings that had been preserved had been taken away to sub-mayor Alex Costa<\/a>‘s office. As of around 2pm, Mariza did not have a place to stay and residents put out a call\u00a0for\u00a0help on her behalf.<\/p>\n

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

Just two days ago,\u00a0Jo\u00e3o commented on the close-knit community in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, saying “you will never find a place like this.” He was certain that the 41 families committed to\u00a0remaining\u2014of just under 100 still there and\u00a0over 600 families<\/a>\u00a0in the past\u2014were there to stay. Today he struggled to find such positive words. The City\u00a0continues to tell residents one thing but do another. Mayor Eduardo Paes promised in 2013<\/a> that those who wanted to stay would remain in the area, reassuring residents\u00a0as recently as August<\/a>\u00a0that part of the community would remain. However, the continued lack of transparency around the City’s plans for the neighborhood in relation to the Olympic Park access roads leaves remaining residents in an ongoing state of\u00a0tension and uncertainty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Around 5 o’clock this morning, Friday October 23, the Municipal Guard policing force and government\u00a0representatives arrived in\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, the\u00a0community bordering\u00a0the Olympic Park in Rio’s\u00a0West Zone, to demolish more homes in the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":24924,"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":[1293,1854,1736,1288,1333,336,1329],"tags":[272,991,11,1656,5,1555,1890,4,21],"writer":[1352,1807],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-housingwatch","9":"category-1736","10":"category-highlight","11":"category-event-reports","12":"category-violations","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","15":"tag-eviction-tactics-lost-belongings","16":"tag-forced-evictions","17":"tag-lightning-eviction","18":"tag-olympics","19":"tag-redes-de-desenvolvimento-da-mare","20":"tag-alex-costa","21":"tag-vila-autodromo","22":"tag-west-zone","23":"writer-cerianne-robertson","24":"writer-clare-huggins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=24921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}