{"id":28074,"date":"2016-04-14T11:05:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T14:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=28074"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:04:04","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:04:04","slug":"horto-continues-sunday-protests-against-eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=28074","title":{"rendered":"Horto Continues Sunday Protests Against Eviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

On Sunday April 10, residents of Horto<\/a>, located within and around Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Botanical Garden in the South Zone<\/a>, held a\u00a0protest against the removal<\/a> of their community of 621 families.<\/p>\n

The protest, announced as \u201cAn Act of Defense of the Horto Community<\/a>\u201d started inside the gates of Horto, where around 80-100 residents and supporters of all ages gathered wearing \u201cHorto Remains\u201d t-shirts and sharing \u201cHorto: history that matters\u201d stickers.<\/p>\n

At 10am the community made their way down Rua Pacheco Le\u00e3o to Rua Jardim Bot\u00e2nico where they marched alongside the fences that enclose the Botanical Garden, stopping to chant at one of the Globo Network<\/a> buildings. As happened during the\u00a0last march, on Sunday March 27<\/a>, the Botanical Garden gates had been blocked to prevent the group from entering.<\/p>\n

Outside the entrance gates of the Garden, the community affirmed\u00a0over a mega-phone that they will continue to protest every Sunday<\/a> until their voices are heard. Until now Botanical Garden representatives have not made direct contact with the community\u00a0about the reasons for eviction. President of the Horto Residents Commission, Emilia Maria de Souza confirmed they refuse to discuss the matters with community.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe<\/a><\/p>\n

One resident held a sign saying:\u00a0\u201cThe removal of Horto residents has a name: COUP. [Mayor] Eduardo Paes<\/a> said: ‘I grew up\u00a0in this community and these people already lived here. I am going to help them.’ Where are you Eduardo Paes?\u201d\u00a0The resident explained that Paes was born just over the road and he has been filmed<\/a> pledging his support for the community.<\/p>\n

The community of Horto has a long history<\/a>, dating back to the 15th century when the land was occupied by sugarcane plantations. In 1808, King Jo\u00e3o VI expropriated\u00a0the land, first for a gunpowder factory and then for the gardens. As the workers of the Botanical Garden were spread across Rio de Janeiro State, they were invited by the King to relocate and permitted to build homes within the park’s boundaries.<\/p>\n

For generations following the establishment of Horto, residents have both worked for and respected the Botanical Garden. Emilia Maria de Souza, president of the Horto Residents\u2019 Commission, explained the strong connection Horto residents have to the garden: \u201cOur ancestors were workers of the Botanical Garden, we are not invaders<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Resident Vilmar da Silva Paulo, who has lived in Horto for over 50 years, affirmed:\u00a0\u201cThe majority of people who\u00a0live here are descendants of people who had lived here for 70-80 years.\u201d Vilmar received an eviction notice from Botanical Garden representatives on January 18, 2016, stating that he would be evicted in 10 days. This eviction did not take place. On March 28<\/a> Vilmar and his family faced another eviction threat and spent several days receiving news that the Shock Troops<\/a> were to arrive and remove him from his home. Vilmar\u2019s son, Adilio da Silva Paulo, said he’s doesn’t know\u00a0why his family’s home was targeted first.<\/p>\n

All information regarding the eviction notice was conveyed through Shock Troops and the media. There has been\u00a0no official communication. Residents have received no offers of compensation.<\/p>\n

Vilmar believes the eviction threats and misinformation were intended to increase psychological pressure<\/a> on residents to leave, as has happened in favelas across the city<\/a>. However he is standing firm and remaining in his home where he lives with his four children and four grandchildren. He\u00a0strongly affirms: \u201cWe are a family here… all the residents of Horto are a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Celia Ravera, lawyer and professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University (UFRJ), the Botanical Garden is claiming to need Horto\u2019s land in order to conduct a research study, but there are many other areas that the Garden already has access to that would be more than sufficient.<\/p>\n

Recent speculation for the use of the land is to transform it into a commercial area for surrounding businesses, Globo being one of the dominant tenants of the area. Many residents voiced that it was only after Globo moved some of its headquarters to the surrounding Jardim Bot\u00e2nico<\/a>\u00a0neighborhood\u00a0that Horto started to experience the threat of eviction.<\/p>\n

At least 20 residents currently work in the Botanical Garden. None of them participated in Sunday\u2019s demonstration for fear of jeopardizing their employment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Sunday April 10, residents of Horto, located within and around Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Botanical Garden in the South Zone, held a\u00a0protest against the removal of their community of 621 families. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":28093,"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":[1293,1267,1854,1668,1288,1290,1333,452,336,1329],"tags":[756,272,474,1497,698,11,390,884,282,26,894,18,423,270,156,471,365],"writer":[1807,1999,1304],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-gentrificationwatch","9":"category-housingwatch","10":"category-participationwatch","11":"category-highlight","12":"category-civilsociety","13":"category-event-reports","14":"category-rio20","15":"category-violations","16":"category-by-international-observers","17":"tag-community-organizing","18":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","19":"tag-environment","20":"tag-eviction-tactics-misinformation","21":"tag-federal-government","22":"tag-forced-evictions","23":"tag-globo","24":"tag-horto","25":"tag-housing","26":"tag-housing-rights","27":"tag-jardim-botanico","28":"tag-protest","29":"tag-psychological-terror","30":"tag-resistance","31":"tag-south-zone","32":"tag-sustainability","33":"tag-zero-participation","34":"writer-clare-huggins","35":"writer-mariah-barber","36":"writer-meg-healy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28074","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28074"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=28074"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=28074"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=28074"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=28074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}