Favela do Metro photo set

I had meant to include these photos from fellow researcher Claire Evans in last week's post about the removal of Favela do Metro, but....I didn't, so here they are:

Photos by Claire Evans. Comments are my own.

Photo demonstrating the demolition tactics of the municipal government's Municipal Housing Secretary (SMH). Various residents describe the sporadic style of the bulldozings as "minando" (literally, destroying with land mines). The community suspects that this method of eviction was chosen to "smoke out" residents in the remaining homes who have resisted the government's threats and refused to be resettled elsewhere.

The interior of a partially-demolished house. Many houses in Favela do Metro (and most other comunidades) house more than one family on different floors, creating a chaotic removal scheme in which the SMH destroys only the part a house belongs to a family who has agreed to sign eviction papers. In this case, the family occupying the bottom floor has accepted their fate, been relocated, and has had their section of the house bulldozed, whereas the family living upstairs has refused to leave. Residents who remain behind must live with the rubble that the SMH bulldozers leave behind.

Favela do Metro is culturally and physically distinct from the larger and more famous Mangueira comunidade that towers above it. The SuperVia train tracks (pictured) serve as the de facto border between the two settlements.

This home belongs to the young woman with whom I stopped to speak on our walking tour of the community. She watches over her residence night and day to attempt to impede the bulldozers - should they come - from destroying her home. In order to remain in the community during the day, the young woman left her job last February. Note the various "SMH" insignia (in blue) that now deface the facade of her home (explained in detail below)

The blue "swastika" (as dubbed by residents) of the Municipal Housing Secretary. Representatives from the SMH have entered homes in communities slated for removal without permission, and duped residents into signing fate-sealing eviction papers using manipulative and exploitative tactics. In some cases, children have reportedly been forced to sign the papers if their parents are not at home. In other cases, residents have been tricked into thinking the SMH was going door-to-door conducting a survey for the Bolsa Familia social welfare program.