{"id":31693,"date":"2016-08-12T13:40:15","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T16:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=31693"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:04:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:04:01","slug":"resident-of-the-last-standing-original-home-in-vila-autodromo-tells-foreign-media-of-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=31693","title":{"rendered":"Resident of the Last Standing Original Home in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo Tells Foreign Media of “Terror”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For the original article by Adriano Wilkson in Portuguese\u00a0published by\u00a0UOL, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the last few days, dozens of journalists from countries participating in Rio de Janeiro’s\u00a0Olympic Games<\/a> have sought out\u00a0the resident of the last original intact house in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>. The favela that once housed almost 3,000 people today has\u00a0just 21 houses<\/a> alongside the\u00a0modern\u00a0buildings constructed for the Games.<\/p>\n

In the span of just\u00a0three hours, UOL Esporte<\/em>\u00a0saw reporters and documentary filmmakers\u00a0from countries as varied as\u00a0Canada, Switzerland, and Estonia, asking\u00a0the 51-year-old former fisherman Delmo de Oliveira<\/a> to tell\u00a0his story of resistance against the pressure from government officials\u00a0to demolish his home.<\/p>\n

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

On Wednesday, August 3, his neighbor Rudney\u2019s house was demolished by a tractor. Delmo\u2019s house, three\u00a0storeys\u00a0with a kind of metal frame, was due to be knocked down the day after but an injunction prevented the action.<\/p>\n

“It appears the mayor and governor have carried out a systematic approach of intense physical and psychological terrorism<\/a> because they\u2019ve really been efficient in ejecting people from\u00a0here,” Delmo repeats in every interview. “But I will not leave here. We\u2019ve been on this land for 30 years, 30 years fighting to stay, and it won\u2019t be now that I leave.”<\/p>\n

He tells each reporter that in the last two years the government has pressured the community<\/a> to make way for Olympic construction by cutting the electricity and water<\/a>, making verbal threats<\/a>, and using force<\/a>. Most people relented<\/a> and either received\u00a0apartments<\/a> built by the City or received\u00a0compensation.<\/p>\n

A few people resisted and moved to a small paved street<\/a> on the community’s original site. Now they live in small houses with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a tiny patio. Delmo\u2019s house is the only one to still maintain its original structure.<\/p>\n

This setting is just a few meters from the Olympic Park media center, the site that brings together journalists from all over the world with accreditation to cover the Games.<\/p>\n

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

On Thursday, August 4, Yves Boisvert from the newspaper,\u00a0La Presse,\u00a0<\/em>in Montreal, Canada learned\u00a0Delmo\u2019s story through the help of an interpreter. This is the fourth Olympic Games the journalist\u00a0has covered. “These removals<\/a> for mega-events<\/a> always happen, but not in the dramatic way<\/a> we see\u00a0here in Brazil,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, public opinion in Canada and in the West in general is one of adoration for the Games, but these stories of removals, these tragedies they generate, make people question whether it’s all worth it in\u00a0the name of a party.”<\/p>\n

Swiss documentary filmmaker Samuel Chalard has been following the story of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo for the last two years and aims to finalize\u00a0a film about those who have been removed and those who are resisting next year. On the same\u00a0Thursday, he took more images and did more\u00a0interviews with the residents who continue as neighbors to the Games.<\/p>\n

“The people\u00a0who remain are true heroes,” said the Swiss, who has managed to film occasions\u00a0when the government tried to tear down the houses. “If it wasn\u2019t for the foreign, white press filming everything, maybe I would not be\u00a0here,” Delmo suggested.<\/p>\n

A group of French and Italian journalists were invited to watch Friday\u2019s opening ceremony on TV at Delmo\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

Other foreign media\u00a0outlets\u00a0spent the afternoon filming and interviewing residents such as Maria da Penha<\/a>, a leader in the region who now lives in one of the newly built houses. “I\u2019m not against the Olympics, no,” she told an American journalist, “but I think it’s something that\u2019s not for everyone and is just for a minority.\u2019<\/p>\n

Another resident, who had just moved, said she has faith\u00a0that things will get better with time. “We will get used to it and continue living day by day,” she said as she swept in front of her home. “I will listen to the Olympics on a small radio because my TV hasn’t yet arrived.”<\/p>\n

According to the City of Rio, the removal of houses in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo was necessary for roadworks in the vicinity of the Olympic Park.<\/p>\n

Mayor Eduardo Paes<\/a> had promised\u00a0to deliver the new homes before\u00a0the Games began\u00a0to\u00a0those who had not\u00a0agreed to leaving, which has happened.<\/p>\n

\"Delmo's<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article by Adriano Wilkson in Portuguese\u00a0published by\u00a0UOL, click here. In the last few days, dozens of journalists from countries participating in Rio de Janeiro’s\u00a0Olympic Games have sought out\u00a0the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":31769,"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":[1293,1854,1736,1330,336],"tags":[272,1495,11,5,423,270,4,21],"writer":[2161],"translator":[1344],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31693","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-translation","11":"category-violations","12":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","13":"tag-eviction-tactics-canceled-services","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-olympics","16":"tag-psychological-terror","17":"tag-resistance","18":"tag-vila-autodromo","19":"tag-west-zone","20":"writer-adriano-wilkson","21":"translator-cara-pears"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31693","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=31693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31693"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=31693"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=31693"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=31693"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=31693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}