Families refuse to vacate in Olympic Park as games near

As sports arenas rise up around them and the houses of neighbours are reduced to rubble, more than 20 families refuse to leave their favela, or squatter settlement, on the border of the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, vowing to fight eviction whatever the cost.

With just a year to go before the Games come to Brazil, over 90 percent of residents in the slum of Vila Autodromo have already left after accepting compensation and their homes destroyed.

Some 50 or so families remain, living in a ghost town with sporadic access to water and electricity and having suffered violent run-ins with police. About half of those families are digging in their heels.

The 450 families that have already been moved from the favela are just a small part of more than 20,000 families re-located since 2009 in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone, many of them to make way for Olympic projects.

Around half of the families still living in the favela say they are open to negotiating with local authorities about their resettlement.

The holdouts of Vila Autodromo have become a powerful symbol against the use of the Olympic Games to modernise Rio, a move critics say is only benefiting the rich.

The run-up to the World Cup last year was marked by the largest street protests in decades by Brazilians angry about the billions spent to host the event. While few are predicting similar demonstrations against the Olympics, social discontent is bubbling just below the surface.

Maria Da Penha, 50, has lived in Vila Autodromo for nearly half her life. She recently had her nose broken in a scuffle with police as holdouts tried to stop a home from being demolished.

“I am still very apprehensive because I do not know what is going to happen to me, but what I am sure of is my right to stay. I have the right to remain here for 200 years so I want to stay here in my house, on my land and I will stay here on my land, in my community, where I am happy. I would not sell this happiness for any amount of money,” Penha said, referring to land titles given to residents by the state government in 1994.

Located off a main avenue in Rio’s prosperous beachside suburb of Barra da Tijuca, Vila Autodromo is a small strip of houses and unpaved roads bordering a lagoon. The buildings vary from ramshackle cinder block homes, typical of squatter settlements, to well-built spacious houses overlooking the water.

The City Hall says the negotiation process has been transparent and denies any accusations it used violence or disrespected residents.

In interviews with a dozen holdouts, residents described the neighbourhood as a paradise compared with other poor areas of Rio.

“There is nowhere in Rio de Janeiro quite like this. This is a calm place where people live in peace. People can live here for 80, 90 years in peace, but they leave here and they die. Some five people have left here and died because it is a different environment. There is nothing to do with drug trafficking here, children play in the streets at night, women go out and come home whatever time they want to and nobody messes with them. I like to say that this place is a piece of heaven,” said Jose Scominot who has lived in the community for 30 years.

Residents believe the area will be used to build luxury apartments or hotels once the Games are over.

Plans already exist to transform much of the Olympic Park into high-rise apartments, and the Olympic Village, which is under construction nearby and will house visiting athletes, will also later be sold as residences.

Human rights group Amnesty International says the government has yet to produce convincing evidence that the community really needs to be moved.

Want to send us a story? Submit on Wananchi Reporting on the Citizen Digital App or Send an email to wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke or Send an SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp on 0743570000

Leave a Comment

Comments

No comments yet.

latest stories