{"id":3638,"date":"2012-05-09T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=3638"},"modified":"2014-11-24T13:27:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T16:27:47","slug":"favela-do-metro-terrorized-through-drawn-out-eviction-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=3638","title":{"rendered":"Favela do Metr\u00f4 Terrorized through Drawn-out Eviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

RioOnWatch was the first news site to report<\/a> on the brutal Favela do Metr\u00f4 eviction back in November 2010. A year and a half later we revisit the scene to see how residents have faired. Slideshow<\/a> is also available.<\/p>\n

*************<\/p>\n

\"\"Two years on from the first announcements that their houses would be cleared to make way for World Cup 2014 developments, residents of Favela do Metr\u00f4 are still living through the brutal, drawn out destruction of their community.<\/p>\n

A stone\u2019s throw from the world famous Maracan\u00e3 stadium, Favela do Metr\u00f4 was founded 33 years ago by workers from the Northeast of Brazil hired to build the adjacent Maracan\u00e3 metro station from which the favela takes its name. Situated at the foot of the much larger and well-known Mangueira favela, Metr\u00f4 was in 2010 home to over 700 families and 126 businesses, mostly auto repairs and mechanics that line the main highway.<\/p>\n

\"\"Speaking in the forecourt entrance to the community, in front of a wall marked ‘[Mayor] Eduardo P\u00e3es and [Housing Secretary] Bittar [are] enemies of the people,\u2019 Francecleide Costa, president of the Favela do Metr\u00f4 Resident\u2019s Association explains the demoralizing process the community has undergone: \u201cIn July 2010 City officials entered the community spraypainting numbers on the houses, making notes and taking photos. We realized we were going to have to leave. We didn\u2019t know what to do.”<\/p>\n

Standing near a reeking, overflowing Comlurb garbage skip, left abandoned by the City which has ceased providing basic municipal services, despite 300 families still on site, Francecleide continues:\u00a0\u201cPeople have their whole lives here, their house, school, work, and then someone comes along saying you don\u2019t have the right to live here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Official announcements and pressure to leave followed, with replacement housing offered under the Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a> iniative in the West Zone neighborhood of Cosmos<\/a>, over 70km from Favela do Metr\u00f4. Buckling under pressure, 107 families moved to Cosmos in December 2010.<\/p>\n

Community resistance aided by the state’s public defenders office, the Catholic church, and international press<\/a> attention secured replacement housing nearby in the new Mangueira 1 and 2 apartment developments. 248 families moved to Mangueira 1 last year, with remaining residents scheduled to be moved either to Mangueira 2, due for completion in the next couple of months, or at the next metro stop in Triagem.<\/p>\n

Whilst residents have fought evictions, the City has gone ahead demolishing houses left behind by residents taken to Cosmos and Mangueira 1. Currently, the skeleton of a once vibrant community lives precariously amidst the rubble.<\/p>\n

\"\"Walking through the community, washing lines hang over the garbage and rubble where neighbor\u2019s houses once stood. Francecleide laments the current situation: \u201cLight (the electricity utility) and Comlurb (waste collection) don\u2019t come here anymore. We have to call and call to get them to take away the garbage piles. It\u2019s very difficult to live with. It\u2019s ugly and dirty. There are lots of mosquitos, Dengue and rats. I run through here at night because I\u2019m terrified of the rats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abandoned and half demolished houses have attracted homeless people to the community. \u201cA lot of people have come trying to sign up for relocations. It creates a lot of tensions in the community. They don\u2019t help with community trash collection. They just make things worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Walking further away from the metro station, the number of houses standing decreases, leaving remaining residents isolated among cleared spaces filled with rubble and semi-demolished structures where drug use, prostitution and robbery have become commonplace at night. 78 year old Sebastiane de Souza was robbed at her home, currently opening out onto a large cleared space. \u201cI\u2019m scared to go out,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re alone here. We\u2019re in God\u2019s hands now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Approximately half the community has already left. Of those that moved to Cosmos, the dislocation from their places of work, as well as friends and schools, has been difficult.<\/p>\n

Sebasti\u00e3o<\/a> had lived in the community for 25 years before moving to Cosmos in 2010. Pointing to the cleared area where his home once stood, he says \u201cEverything I have is here. I work here and now I have to leave at 5am to get here on time.\u201d He goes on, \u201c[The authorities] have thrown us to the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the initial abrupt eviction of 107 families to Cosmos, the 600 or so remaining families resisted, counting on help from the State Public Defenders and the Catholic Church. The international media and human rights organizations also brought attention to their struggle.<\/p>\n

\"\"As a result, others have been moved close by, to the 248-unit Mangueira 1 housing complex. Some complain of poor construction. Rosa Silveira, also a resident for 25 years, moved to Mangueira 1 fourteen months ago. She says: \u201cI used to have a good house with a garage. They removed us for nothing. I wanted it to be better. There are cracks in my apartment and when it rains there are leaks. It\u2019s difficult. A lot of people are angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those left living in the half-demolished favela, it\u2019s a case of waiting for Mangeira 2 and housing in Triagem. Francecleide believes the destruction of houses and subsequent neglect, as well as the removal of community leaders, are part of a strategy to weaken resistance of those that want to stay. It has worked. Francecleide, who exudes dignified strength as she guides us through the community she\u2019s fought to save, admits to being overwhelmed by the situation. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d say this but I\u2019m ready to leave,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s unbearable and it hurts a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actual plans for the area after the final evictions haven\u2019t been made public, however it\u2019s believed to become a parking lot in preparation for the 2014 World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the World Cup means messing with the poor and taking away people\u2019s rights,\u201d says Franceleide, going on to cite the evictions in townships in South Africa for the 2010 Cup. She pauses. \u201cBut we only really feel it when it\u2019s us, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

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RioOnWatch was the first news site to report on the brutal Favela do Metr\u00f4 eviction back in November 2010. A year and a half later we revisit the scene to see how residents have faired. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3668,"comment_status":"open","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":[1293,1736,335,336],"tags":[484,126,1495,19,11,182,25,485,165,157,37,210,268],"writer":[444],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-policies","10":"category-violations","11":"tag-comlurb-waste-collection","12":"tag-cosmos","13":"tag-eviction-tactics-canceled-services","14":"tag-favela-do-metro","15":"tag-forced-evictions","16":"tag-government-neglect","17":"tag-human-rights","18":"tag-light-electricity","19":"tag-maracana","20":"tag-minha-casa-minha-vida","21":"tag-north-zone","22":"tag-public-housing","23":"tag-state-violence","24":"writer-felicity-clarke"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=3638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}