Development for whom?

Part 2 in a 6-part series on the forced removal of Vila Autodromo

Seu Francisco’s reality could serve as a microcosm of the developmental ironies that have been cast over the city of Rio de Janeiro as it prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. While the government argues that these mega-events will bolster Rio’s economy by create jobs and encouraging foreign investment, the question of into whose pockets the cash influx is deposited is, in actuality, not much of a question if the experiences of other recent mega-event countries - such as labor-strike riddled South Africa - serve as a paradigm. Any economic and social benefits reaped from these events will almost certainly fail to have the “trickle-down” effect that the municipal government insists will occur. The chances that the over one million citizens of Rio who live in the comunidades - Rio’s marginalized informal settlements - will enjoy any externalities from the events appears even bleaker considering the government’s recent decision to revert to dictatorship-era policies and raze settlements it feels pose a threat to event-related construction, security, or both.

Minha Casa Minha Vida apartments in Rio's West Zone.
Resident fear is often an impediment to confirming milicia presence.
Photo credit: Aceveda.com.br

Sadly, stories such as Seu Francisco’s have become the rule - not the exception - to the fallout that mega-event preparations have had on Rio de Janeiro’s comunidades. Of the city’s estimated 1,000 comunidades, 123 - or more than one tenth - have been slated for removal by Rio’s Municipal Housing Office (SMH). The majority of these removals have been deemed necessary due to the massive infrastructural overhaul that the municipal government must execute in order to placate the International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIFA, and the million-odd tourists anticipated to descend upon the city for the two mega-events. It should be noted that, in these cases “removal” is essentially a euphemism for “forced eviction”; residents of comunidades that have already been bulldozed by the SMH have accused the Office of violating their most fundamental United Nations-granted housing and property rights. Worse, these removals have been characterized by insufficient or zero monetary compensation for displaced residents, a lack of transparency and public dialog, and sub-standard resettlement policies which scatter the tight-knit comunidade members across the extreme peripheries of the city with no regard for preserving networks of families and friends. In some cases, residents have been re-housed in the government-subsidized Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House My Life) apartment buildings, originally designated for city residents in lowest income bracket. These heavily criticized condominium complexes are widely known to be ruled by Rio’s ruthless milicia - a shadowy parallel power consisting of ex-police officers who routinely extort money from relocated residents and impose strict sanctions on social activities within the condominium confines. Located in low-profile suburbs on the outskirts of Rio, these apartments have become a breeding ground for this type of Wild West renegade rule. It’s no wonder, therefore, that residents of comunidades facing eviction are less than thrilled about the prospect of government-“assisted” relocation.