{"id":30919,"date":"2016-08-04T10:42:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T13:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30919"},"modified":"2023-08-23T12:20:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:20:52","slug":"the-legacy-of-olympic-evictions-a-multitude-in-the-hands-of-the-militias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30919","title":{"rendered":"The Legacy of Olympic Evictions: A Multitude in the Hands of the Militias"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For the original article by Giula Afiune, Jessica Mota and Natalia Viana in Portuguese published by Ag\u00eancia\u00a0P\u00fablica\u00a0<\/em>click<\/em> here<\/a>\u00a0and scroll down to the final section.<\/em><\/p>\n

The unsuspecting journalist who tries to enter the Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a> condominiums in the West Zone<\/a> will quickly learn three things. The first is that they are all surrounded by gates that control the entry and exit of the residents. There aren\u2019t any doormen. The second is that there are always a few strong young men leaning against the buildings or in cars, observing any movement. The third is that the residents are very afraid of giving interviews.<\/p>\n

Reporters from Ag\u00eancia<\/em>\u00a0Publica<\/i>\u00a0learned of the reality of the fear imposed by the militia<\/a>\u00a0[vigilante cop mafia] during the two visits\u00a0they made\u00a0to the Col\u00f4nia Juliano Moreira<\/a>\u00a0condominium in Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/a>. The first time, a tall young man in a tank top called on us to explain what we were doing there. He did not introduce himself, but he nodded. Residents spoke of the militia<\/a> in a veiled fashion, complaining that there was \u201cnot much freedom,\u201d \u201cchildren cannot be on the streets after 10pm,\u201d or \u201cthere are too many people who want to boss everyone around here.\u201d During the second visit, the surveillance was more ostentatious: while our reporter talked to a resident on the first floor, two young men watched from the ground floor, leaving the man and his wife deeply worried. \u201cHe\u2019s not a militiaman, he is the son of a militiaman,\u201d the resident said about one of the young men. Afraid, the couple didn\u2019t want to give an interview or tell their story.<\/p>\n

The fear of the power of the militia echoes another fear which is always constant in Rio’s favelas: the fear of drug traffickers<\/a>. In the words of researcher Mariana Cavalcanti<\/a>, \u201cpoor communities in Rio always have a boss,\u201d and the control of entire buildings<\/a> in the Minha Casa Minha Vida program by militias comprised of ex-policemen and firefighters is the great setback of this reality. According to the stories told, militiamen enforce order, charge taxes for gas, electricity and cable TV, give orders, and beat and expel residents who rebel against them. In this way they ensure their vision of \u201corder\u201d and \u201csecurity,\u201d keeping drug traffickers a long distance away.<\/p>\n

The origins of the militias that currently control the West Zone of the city are the retired or off-duty corrupt police officers\u00a0that\u00a0took root in the West Zone under the pretext of fighting crime in the early 2000s. In September 2006, while he was a candidate for governor of the state, Mayor Eduardo Paes explained to\u00a0RJTV<\/em><\/a>, from the Globo<\/em> network the efficiency of this type of militia: \u201cYou have areas where the State has completely lost sovereignty. We need to recover that sovereignty. I’ll give an example, since people are always asking about recovering that sovereignty. Jacarepagu\u00e1 is a neighborhood where\u00a0the so-called retired police force\u2014comprised of policemen and firefighters\u2014brought tranquility to the population. The S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 Oper\u00e1rio hill was one of the most violent in the state and now it is one of the calmest. [Also] the Sap\u00ea hill, over in Curicica<\/a>. That is, with action, with intelligence, there is a way with which the State can return sovereignty to those areas,\u201d he said. After the episode, Paes denied he had defended the actions of the militias several times.<\/p>\n

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

A member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), Paes<\/a> began his political career in that same region in 1993, as the\u00a0sub-mayor of Barra<\/a> and Jacarepagu\u00e1 at 23 years of age. That is where he still maintains the majority of his electoral support\u2014when he was re-elected in 2012,\u00a0822,000 of the 2,000,000 votes for him came from the West Zone. One of the areas where he had the highest percentage of votes was Santa Cruz<\/a>, where many\u00a0condominiums were built under the Minha Casa Minha Vida program. He obtained almost 77% of the valid votes there.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not by chance\u00a0that the presence of militias is much more prominent in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro. If the majority of the new Minha Casa Minha Vida projects are in this region, it is also not surprising that the vast majority of these buildings are controlled by them. According to government data, of the total of 16,309\u00a0people relocated through the program, half went to the [extreme] West Zone and the other half was divided among condominiums in central Rio<\/a>, the North Zone<\/a> and Jacarepagu\u00e1.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office also gave\u00a0the numbers of families settled in some of the housing projects visited by Publica’s<\/a><\/em> 100 project<\/a>. Three of the most populated groups of condominiums\u2014those in Campo Grande<\/a>, Senador Camar\u00e1 and Cosmos<\/a>, which together received 5,121 relocated families\u2014are in the westernmost part of the city’s West Zone. These condominiums were inhabited by people who have already been through all the evictions processes<\/a> described in the 100 report<\/a>. There are reports in both about the presence of the militia.<\/p>\n

This map produced by P\u00fablica<\/em>, with the origins and destinations of community removals linked to the Olympics<\/a>, outlines the massive displacement and relocation that occurred in the West Zone. P\u00fablica<\/em> used the locations of the Minha Casa Minha Vida condominiums built\u00a0through the first half of 2015, investigated by journalists Lu\u00e3 Marinatto and Rafael Soares from the newspaper Jornal Extra<\/em>, and information gathered in the dossier of the Popular Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n