{"id":28558,"date":"2016-05-04T14:14:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T17:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=28558"},"modified":"2016-05-06T14:14:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T17:14:23","slug":"favelas-in-the-news-april-2016-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=28558","title":{"rendered":"Favelas In the News: April 2016 Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the impeachment vote in Brazil’s lower house of Congress to the 100-days-to-go milestone, April was jam-packed with news with significant consequences for Rio’s favelas. To help our readers digest the major news\u00a0and themes of the past month, we\u2019ve summarized the stories we published here on RioOnWatch<\/em> along with a few other must-reads in the media on favelas. Access past\u00a0monthly summaries\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and full digests here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

The Brazilian Congress’ theatrical vote to\u00a0impeach President Dilma Rousseff\u00a0on April 17 offered\u00a0eye-opening insight<\/a> into Brazilian governance.\u00a0RioOnWatch<\/em>\u00a0published a series<\/a> of five opinion pieces by\u00a0favela<\/span> residents in response, touching on\u00a0threats to democracy<\/a>, the biases of mass media<\/a>,\u00a0broken promises<\/a>\u00a0for investment,\u00a0the risk of politicizing basic services<\/a>, and the need to reinvent the\u00a0political system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On April 27 we marked 100-days-to-go to the Olympic Games\u00a0by publishing a critique of the international awards<\/a> and recognitions the city of Rio has received in recent years. One of those awards was for Morar Carioca favela<\/span> upgrades, but residents of Pica-Pau\u00a0wait in precarious conditions for the investments<\/a>\u00a0promised through the program years ago. Some Pica-Pau homes are at risk of landslides resulting from heavy rain, which also causes floods across the city due to outdated stormwater systems<\/a>. In Babil\u00f4nia, residents of high-risk areas were promised relocation<\/a> in the community under Morar Carioca years ago, but the City now threatens them with removal to the distant West Zone.<\/p>\n

Also facing eviction threats are fishing community\u00a0Praia do Sossego and Horto, the community at the edge of the Botanical Gardens\u00a0where residents held a series of protests on Sundays<\/a>. The Zacarias traditional fishing community, which has resisted eviction threats since the 1940s,\u00a0is facing\u00a0land development<\/a>\u00a0that threatens to block locals’ access to the ocean coast.<\/p>\n

Several community museums around the city are also at risk of removal<\/a>. These museums document local memory and history, the value of which was highlighted in an excellent article<\/a> on Provid\u00eancia’s history in\u00a0The Guardian.\u00a0<\/em>An article by MC Calazans argues that funk music itself is a museum<\/a>, affirming living memory and reclaiming life. The final article in our Language of the Favela<\/span>series looks at funk<\/a>, along with samba, hip-hip, and literature, as a\u00a0cultural expression\u00a0of local issues and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Vila Aut\u00f3dromo residents are in the process of developing a museum<\/a> to document evictions and their memory of the community. They have invited all supporters<\/a> to join the\u00a0creative endeavor. This project follows the news that some 20 families have reached an agreement<\/a> with the City on the plan for community upgrades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the ongoing economic crisis has meant severe cuts to State spending in areas like education and security. High school students began occupying schools<\/a> in March in protest of budget cuts; by April 15 the number of occupied schools<\/a> had grown to 45. These students are part of a broader youth movement\u00a0demanding\u00a0greater attention<\/a> to the needs of young people, particularly in peripheral areas of the city.<\/p>\n

As for security, the State-funded pacification program is in crisis as violence is returning or spiking<\/a> across favelas<\/span> with UPPs. Amnesty International has condemned<\/a>\u00a0the current surge in killings by police. Recently-launched app N\u00f3s Por N\u00f3s recorded 40 reported incidents<\/a>\u00a0of police violence in its first two weeks, while a\u00a0Mar\u00e9 resident argued<\/a>\u00a0Military Police in that\u00a0community view residents as “trash.”\u00a0At the start of April Complexo do Alem\u00e3o\u00a0paid tribute<\/a> to Eduardo de Jesus, a boy who was killed by police at age 10 on April 2, 2015, and the ongoing struggle of his mother Terezinha to fight for justice.<\/p>\n

In spite of clear current\u00a0tensions, we believe blanket bans on visiting favelas<\/span>, such as the one set by the Australian Olympic Committee for its athletes, fundamentally misrepresent the diversity of Rio’s favelas<\/span>. Our rare editorial on this topic<\/a> argues the ban only contributes to further stigmatizing these communities and justifying\u00a0damaging policies.<\/p>\n

Look out for our next summary of articles from April\u00a0as we\u00a0enter the final 100 days to go until the Rio 2016 Olympics. For more information and links to favela news from the month, see our full Favela Digest for April 2016<\/a>\u00a0here. You can subscribe to receive the\u00a0Favela Digest straight to your inbox each month here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the impeachment vote in Brazil’s lower house of Congress to the 100-days-to-go milestone, April was jam-packed with news with significant consequences for Rio’s favelas. To help our readers digest the major news\u00a0and themes of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":28561,"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":[328],"tags":[1893],"writer":[1352],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-understanding-rio","8":"tag-digest","9":"writer-cerianne-robertson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28558","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=28558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28558"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=28558"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=28558"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=28558"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=28558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}