{"id":46329,"date":"2018-09-20T12:06:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T15:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=46329"},"modified":"2018-09-27T11:13:50","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T14:13:50","slug":"following-recent-eviction-threats-aracatiba-unites-and-pushes-forward-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=46329","title":{"rendered":"Following Recent Eviction Threats, Ara\u00e7atiba Unites and Pushes Forward [IMAGES]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The over 40-year-old community of Ara\u00e7atiba<\/a> is situated in Barra de\u00a0Guaratiba, in the far West Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. To arrive from the city center, residents and visitors must take a combination of buses\u2014a journey lasting over two hours from many corners of the city. However, upon arrival, one steps into a different world. The community is situated along a saltwater mangrove swamp and each day, the tide brings in life-sustaining water for the flora and fauna of the area. The air is noticeably cleaner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOn a sunny Saturday, August 11, residents of Ara\u00e7atiba opened their doors to officials, activists, and allies from across the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region to discuss the future of their community, which has been\u00a0resisting eviction<\/a>\u00a0threats issued by federal and municipal authorities. After the\u00a0demolition of three homes<\/a> in October 2017, and a close call this April<\/a>, when residents were warned police were going to deliver additional eviction notices, community leaders decided to rally residents and create an action plan for moving forward.<\/p>\n

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

Since their SOS moment months prior, residents of Ara\u00e7atiba have been busy representing their community locally and nationally\u2014meeting with Mayor Marcelo Crivella<\/a> and also sending a delegate to meet with federal officials in Bras\u00edlia. They are cautiously optimistic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Guaratiba State Biological Reserve<\/a> that sits adjacent to the community was transferred from the army to the federal government several years ago. Originally established in 1974, the reserve was recategorized in 2010<\/a>\u00a0as a unit of full environmental protection\u2014the most restrictive conservation category with regard to human presence in the area. While the community falls outside the official limits of the reserve, which is managed by the State Institute of the Environment<\/a> (INEA), the Secretary of Federal Patrimony<\/a> (SPU) justified the 2017 demolitions by\u00a0claiming<\/a> that the structures were situated in a protective boundary zone on federal land and citing the “environmental hazard<\/a>” posed to the reserve.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The federal government completed a registry of residents in 2012, leading community members to believe they would be given land titles. The situation initially seemed favorable, but years have since passed with no action. The community was recently assigned a new federal defense attorney, who was present at the meeting in Bras\u00edlia. He stressed that the best option at the moment is to sit down with government agencies and devise a solution. Together with other communities threatened with eviction, residents of Ara\u00e7atiba will participate in a public hearing<\/a> at the Public Defender’s Office<\/a> on September 27 to do just that.<\/p>\n

However, the federal government recently expressed that it would leave it up to local governments to carry out official land regularization\u2014though it has not yet ceded authority to do so to the appropriate government agency, the\u00a0Land and Cartography Institute of the State of Rio de Janeiro\u00a0<\/a>(ITERJ).\u00a0An ITERJ representative recalled that at this point, there is nothing they can do: they will have to wait until the federal government cedes power and the City government carries out upgrades in the community, which is necessary in order to regularize the land.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Mayor Crivella has not yet shown a demonstration of support. In May, he was quoted saying<\/a> that only after upgrading would he consider land titling, and that at the moment there are no funds for upgrading. Community leader and activist\u00a0Ana Frimerman recalled this scene from their meeting with Crivella: \u201cThe mayor looked at me and asked, \u2018Where is Ara\u00e7atiba? I don\u2019t know.\u2019 I said, \u2018By Barra da Guaratiba.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Where is Barra da Guaratiba?\u2019 The mayor of Rio. This is the fight we are in. You have to be a warrior, you have to have a lot of patience to be able to persist and survive.\u201d Note to readers: Barra da Guaratiba is a 3,646 square mile neighborhood<\/a> within the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, which the mayor represents.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite community members’ positive attitudes, the struggle to remain hasn\u2019t been easy. Activists and residents of Ara\u00e7atiba stress the importance of unity; the only way for the community to prevail is by mobilizing around their common goal and supporting one another. Residents understand that the fight won\u2019t be easy or quick, and they have been preparing to continue the long and grueling resistance.<\/p>\n

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

Activists and officials were guided by Frimerman and several children who live in the community. They were proud of their relationship to the environment around them and made sure to stress how much they take care to protect and preserve it. Unlike many parts of the West Zone that have been subject to real estate speculation, the natural ecosystem in Ara\u00e7atiba continues to thrive, home to a variety of native plant and animal species.<\/p>\n

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

Despite being located only a few kilometers away from urbanized areas and some of the government offices\u00a0seeking to evict them, Ara\u00e7atiba has a remarkably different pace of life, which its residents proudly share with visitors. Children taught visitors about the local crabs that inhabit the area and what happens when the tide comes in and floods the region each day. Residents demonstrated the importance and humanity of ensuring that their children grow up in harmony with the environment and never lose their excitement about nature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\u201cWhen I arrived in Ara\u00e7atiba, I met them [the children] hanging from a guava tree. And we developed a relationship full of love, unconditional love. I don\u2019t have kids\u2014I consider them to be my kids. In everything that I do, I fight in the memory of my mother. [I fight] for my house, of course, but I mostly fight for the children. Regardless of anything else, I want them to have a home, to have a story to tell. I want each brick here to represent this struggle,\u201d Frimerman asserted.<\/p>\n

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

As the meeting ended and visitors left, the tide rose higher and higher around the community. Whatever comfort can be found in the reliability of nature’s cycles is overshadowed in Ara\u00e7atiba by the unpredictability of a government that refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the community’s right to remain. For now, however, one thing is clear: they will continue to resist. Frimerman and others will continue to fight to represent the community and claim the rights they are guaranteed and deserve: \u201cFor [the children], I will fight until the end. I won\u2019t leave them without a home, I won\u2019t let them tear it down.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The over 40-year-old community of Ara\u00e7atiba is situated in Barra de\u00a0Guaratiba, in the far West Zone of Rio de Janeiro. To arrive from the city center, residents and visitors must take […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":46381,"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":[1293,1854,2555,1290,1271,1332,452,336,1329],"tags":[2399,2594,1944,756,732,474,698,11,60,282,26,25,728,1948,2225,1292,69,270,21],"writer":[2431],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-housingwatch","9":"category-monitoringcrivella","10":"category-civilsociety","11":"category-favelaqualities","12":"category-photo-essays","13":"category-rio20","14":"category-violations","15":"category-by-international-observers","16":"tag-environmental-hazard-designation","17":"tag-aracatiba","18":"tag-brasilia","19":"tag-community-organizing","20":"tag-conservation-unit","21":"tag-environment","22":"tag-federal-government","23":"tag-forced-evictions","24":"tag-guaratiba","25":"tag-housing","26":"tag-housing-rights","27":"tag-human-rights","28":"tag-inea","29":"tag-iterj","30":"tag-marcelo-crivella","31":"tag-organizing","32":"tag-public-defenders","33":"tag-resistance","34":"tag-west-zone","35":"writer-tyler-strobl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329","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\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=46329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}