{"id":82004,"date":"2025-11-08T12:35:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T15:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=82004"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T16:09:09","slug":"victory-against-eviction-200-year-old-horto-community-wins-battle-to-stay-after-40-years-of-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=82004","title":{"rendered":"Victory Against Eviction! 200 Year-Old Horto Community Wins Battle to Stay After 40 Years of Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/a>
After forty years of struggle, resistance and protests for their right to remain, the Horto community achieves a historic agreement. Photo: CatComm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

October 13, 2025 will go down in the history of Horto<\/a>, in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s South Zone<\/a>, as the day when the community signed a historic agreement<\/a> that ends the threat of forced eviction<\/a> that haunted residents for four decades. In a moment of collective celebration, the feeling of victory after so many years of struggle was sealed in song: the famous battle cry \u201cHorto will stay!\u201d became \u201cHorto stayed!\u201d<\/p>\n

The president of the Horto Residents and Friends Association (AMAHOR<\/a>), F\u00e1bio Dutra, sums up the signing of the agreement in three words: exhaustion, pride and relief. For him, the agreement marks a turning point in the community\u2019s struggle for the right to housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lifted a sword from over our heads\u2026 We went into this battle at a disadvantage and are coming out with the situation in our favor. Today, our right is recognized by the Botanical Gardens Institute itself.\u201d \u2014 F\u00e1bio Dutra<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Together<\/a>
Together with public agencies and institutions, representatives of the Horto Residents Association celebrate an agreement that ensures the community can remain. Photo: Marcelo Piu\/Rio de Janeiro City Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rafael Mendon\u00e7a, the attorney representing Horto families in lawsuits over repossession orders, describes the importance of this achievement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement signed on October 13 was historic because it represents an acknowledgment by all the government agencies involved\u2026 that the residents of the Horto community have the right to live there. It was a historic moment of institutional recognition of the right to housing by these actors.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Em\u00edlia de Souza, resident and co-founder of the Horto Museum<\/a>, also celebrated the milestone represented by the collective agreement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community can now feel at ease, without this constant fear of the courts moving forward with repossession orders.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

History and Struggle of the Horto Community<\/h3>\n

Located in the Jardim Bot\u00e2nico<\/a> neighborhood, home to the city’s Botanical Gardens, the Horto community is over 200 years old<\/a>. Its origins date back<\/a> to the founding of the Botanical Gardens Research Institute in the early 19th century. The institute provided houses to its employees to ensure they lived nearby and also offered financial support and materials for building new homes.<\/p>\n

Today, the community is home to 621 families. Many of them are descendants of former Botanical Gardens employees<\/a> who built their homes with the park\u2019s support and still display a strong environmental vocation<\/a>. It is an area predominantly inhabited by Black<\/a>, low-income residents, a demographic profile that stands in sharp contrast to that of Jardim Bot\u00e2nico, the upscale surrounding neighborhood. Despite extensive documentation proving a two-century-long history of occupation, the families\u2019 land tenure has never been properly regularized.<\/p>\n

\"Hiking<\/a>
Hiking activity in Horto, with participants of the Horto Climate Memory<\/a> Circle. Photo: Alexandre Cerqueira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The relationship between the community and the Botanical Gardens was, for the most part, harmonious. However, since the 1980s<\/a>, the Horto community has faced forced eviction threats. At the time, the federal government\u2014which owned the land\u2014filed hundreds of lawsuits ordering the removal of families from the area. Pressure on the community intensified in 2018, after the Botanical Gardens gained ownership of the land and filed a new wave of lawsuits targeting nearly all families. The alleged reasons for eviction include irregular land occupation and environmental damage. However, residents have long suspected other motivations, tied to the high economic value of the community\u2019s land\u2014estimated at around R$10 billion<\/a> (~US$1.87 billion)\u2014and pressure from affluent neighbors.<\/p>\n

Residents of the Horto community lived under the threat of forced eviction for 40 years. During this period, they were subjected to various acts of violence<\/a>, including the use of police force in attempts to remove them. In addition to the ongoing lawsuits, part of the mainstream media constructed a narrative criminalizing the community<\/a>, labeling them as invaders and echoing pro-eviction rhetoric. Since the beginning of the conflict, a total of five families were removed.<\/p>\n

\"Emerson<\/a>
Emerson Souza, co-founder of the Horto Museum, in front of one of the houses whose occupants were forcibly evicted. Photo: CatComm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018The Fight for Our Rights Is Legitimate\u2019<\/h3>\n

This somber chapter in the community\u2019s history<\/a> came to an end in 2025 with the signing of a collective agreement that guarantees, among other things, the families\u2019 right to remain on the land. The agreement involved the participation of the Botanical Gardens Research Institute, the Horto Residents and Friends Association, the Federal Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office (MPF<\/a>), the General Secretariat of the Presidency<\/a>, the Federal Public Defenders’<\/a> Office, the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN<\/a>), and the Rio de Janeiro City Hall, in a ceremony held on October 13 at the Solar da Imperatriz in the Jardim Bot\u00e2nico neighborhood. The successful coordination among this diverse set of actors was the result of a collective effort by community leaders and authorities committed to the community\u2019s fight for the right to housing.<\/p>\n

This collective agreement will serve as the basis for individual agreements to be signed by each family. The Botanical Gardens will remain the landowner but has committed to allowing the Horto community to stay in place. The residents, in turn, have agreed to prevent the community from expanding and to comply with rules aimed at environmental preservation.<\/p>\n

\"Plaque<\/a>
Plaque installed at Largo das Pedras, an important meeting place in the Horto community, marks the signing of the collective agreement. Photo: Felipe Litsek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite this historic achievement, there are reasons for the community to feel uneasy. One concern raised by residents is the potential gentrification of the area<\/a>. This issue came up during negotiations, which ultimately prohibited the sale of properties within the community. Homes can be passed on to residents\u2019 descendants\u2014ensuring the continuity of the community\u2014but cannot be sold or leased to outsiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround here, really close to us, we see gentrification<\/a> [going on]. Where there used to be houses, there are now restaurants that people here can\u2019t afford\u2026 This process of gentrification could reach us. We have to understand that if we fought for over 40 years to keep living here, anything different than that makes no sense. It would be very hypocritical to fight so hard to want to sell now.\u201d \u2014 F\u00e1bio Dutra<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Horto’s example shows that, in Brazil, the right to housing is won through struggle. Without the keys to resistance<\/a>\u2014community engagement and unity, and collaboration with partners across different spheres\u2014this victory would not have been possible.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve set an example for social movements that the fight is worth it. Without struggle, there is no victory. The fight for our rights is legitimate.” \u2014 Em\u00edlia de Souza<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

October 13, 2025, will go down in history as the day Horto stayed. It marks the end of a long period of fear of forced evictions and the beginning of a new chapter toward the community\u2019s regularization and permanence. Horto\u2019s case shows the power of collective struggle in securing a community’s rights. Without broad resistance and solidarity, none of this would have been possible. It also shows that reconciling the right to housing with environmental preservation is possible, making Horto an example for so many other communities fighting for their right to remain. As Dutra, president of the residents\u2019 association, put it: \u201cThey wanted to bury us, but they didn\u2019t know we were seeds!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graffiti<\/a>
Graffiti by an anonymous artist declares \u201cHorto Lives! Horto Stays!\u201d Photo: CatComm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Support\u00a0<\/b>RioOnWatch<\/i><\/b>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0<\/b>by clicking here.<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas October 13, 2025 will go down in the history of Horto, in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s South Zone, as the day when the community signed a historic agreement that ends the threat […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":82005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1290,2242,329,1329],"tags":[3767,11,65,884,282,26,894,1346,618,2773,69,270,520,1403,156],"writer":[3019],"translator":[3452],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-82004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-democracy","10":"category-solutions","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-eviction-tactics-environmental-arguments","13":"tag-forced-evictions","14":"tag-gentrification","15":"tag-horto","16":"tag-housing","17":"tag-housing-rights","18":"tag-jardim-botanico","19":"tag-museu-do-horto","20":"tag-neighborhood-association","21":"tag-prosecutors-office","22":"tag-public-defenders","23":"tag-resistance","24":"tag-solidarity","25":"tag-solution","26":"tag-south-zone","27":"writer-felipe-litsek","28":"translator-staff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82004","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\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82090,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82004\/revisions\/82090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82004"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=82004"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=82004"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=82004"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=82004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}