{"id":42270,"date":"2018-03-14T09:39:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T12:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=42270"},"modified":"2018-03-16T15:27:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T18:27:54","slug":"horto-will-protest-however-many-times-is-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=42270","title":{"rendered":"Horto Will Protest Against Eviction ‘However Many Times is Necessary’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Just one week after a\u00a0productive protest outside the mayor\u2019s office<\/a> in Botafogo, on March 9 residents of the Horto<\/a> community took to the streets again to protest ongoing threats of eviction<\/a> from their homes amid increasing real estate speculation<\/a> in the surrounding Botanical Gardens<\/a>\u00a0neighborhood. Approximately 40 residents from the Horto Neighborhood and Friends Association<\/a> (AMAHOR) gathered outside the Botanical Gardens Research Institute.<\/p>\n

In her opening speech of the morning, one of the first points that former AMAHOR president Em\u00edlia Maria de Souza directed to the current president of the Botanical Gardens Research Institute, S\u00e9rgio Besserman Vianna<\/a>, was that Horto residents have \u201ca greater right to remain because our community is bicentennial<\/a>.\u201d She stressed the importance of recognizing the generations of workers and their families that \u201ccontributed to the construction of this area\u201d and that what is currently happening in the community is \u201can intolerable torture.\u201d Such strong words echoed the sentiments of preoccupation and sustained resistance witnessed at protests<\/a> and council meetings<\/a>\u00a0in recent years.<\/p>\n

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

One of the principal arguments that has been repeatedly brought against Horto residents is the claim that the preservation and protection of the Botanical Gardens requires their removal, despite their history as builders and cultivators of the area<\/a>. Resident Luiz Sergio countered this reasoning, claiming that none of the environmentalists that make this argument \u201chave the history and commitment attached to the preservation of Horto.\u201d Sergio also referred to the federal government’s lack of dialogue with Horto, which he described as a \u201cprejudiced violence\u201d against the people. The\u00a0threat of eviction without negotiation and compensation<\/a> has been a recurring theme within Horto\u2019s decades-long fight against the federal government and the park.<\/p>\n

Frequent shouts of \u201cBesserman out\u201d resonated throughout the demonstration. The research institute president’s failure to meet with protesters\u00a0contrasted with how the new Secretary of Urbanism, Infrastructure and Housing, Verena Andreatta, met protesters at the\u00a0March 2 protest. Although many residents were reluctant to voice firm opinions about Andreatta so early in her term, there was a sense of cautious optimism regarding her openness to dialogue, something Horto residents would like to see replicated in their specific case.<\/p>\n

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

The continued fight against media giant Grupo Globo<\/a> was also reinforced throughout the protest. Residents such as Emerson de Souza, the current president of AMAHOR, discussed the extensive links between the Globo company and the \u201clarge corporate interests within the gardens.\u201d The\u00a0O Globo <\/em>newspaper\u00a0has labeled Horto residents as ‘invaders,’<\/a> but de Souza\u00a0stated that the \u201creal invaders of the gardens are the large corporations and speculators\u201d and called for \u201ctrue democracy\u201d to prevail. Local researcher Leo Peredo, also part of the Horto community, highlighted the way in which O Globo<\/em> has been able to undermine favela residents. He argued since the paper is seen as \u201csolely journalistic\u201d and \u201cnot institutional\u201d (despite plenty of evidence<\/a> to the contrary) its articles can unfairly\u00a0paint favela residents in a bad light<\/a> and fuel real estate speculation in the area without negative repercussions to the paper itself. Countering the frequently biased reporting, long-time resident Edson Santos affirmed Horto\u2019s legacy as a clear example of \u201cthe coexistence of the human being with nature,” describing the community as a sustainable environment<\/a> in contrast with profit-fueled corporate interests.<\/p>\n

The notion of power through solidarity across favelas<\/a> was expressed by many of the day’s speakers,\u00a0reinforced through the presence of leaders like\u00a0Barrinha<\/a> resident\u00a0Jaqueline Andrade Costa. As City Council member Reimont Otoni highlighted, “this is the fight of all communities that are threatened with eviction.” The protest ended as it had begun with strong words from Em\u00edlia Maria da Souza, who stressed the community \u201cwill return however many times is necessary\u201d in order to maintain resistance and ensure change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Just one week after a\u00a0productive protest outside the mayor\u2019s office in Botafogo, on March 9 residents of the Horto community took to the streets again to protest ongoing threats of eviction […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":42285,"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":[1293,1854,1288,1333,1329],"tags":[698,11,390,884,894,1900,18,10,270,2283,520,156],"writer":[2669],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-housingwatch","9":"category-highlight","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-federal-government","13":"tag-forced-evictions","14":"tag-globo","15":"tag-horto","16":"tag-jardim-botanico","17":"tag-media-narrative","18":"tag-protest","19":"tag-real-estate-speculation","20":"tag-resistance","21":"tag-sergio-besserman-vianna","22":"tag-solidarity","23":"tag-south-zone","24":"writer-hari-pannum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42270","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\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42270"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=42270"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=42270"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=42270"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=42270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}