Exclusive expulsion to prepare Rio de Janeiro for the World Cup and the Olympics

Rio is undergoing a transformation. Living is becoming expensive. Those with less purchasing power are being pushed to the edge of the city. The large scale sporting events of 2014 and 2016 and prestige projects are amplifying this trend.

  • Raf Custers Raf Custers

Soca shouts: ‘Your head!’ He knows the sore spots of the house as he built it himself. The ceilings are low, the stairs steep. We climb up onto the roof. We are set upon by two enormous dogs but with Soca at our side they do us no harm. We look over at the Southern flank of Rocinha. ‘Down there was the old racecourse. Fangio once raced there,’ points out Soca. ‘There were little fields here where people grew their own vegetables.’ These days it’s hard to call it a neighbourhood. It counts 120.000 residents; it’s the ‘largest favela in Brazil.’

Rocinha straddles the ridge like a saddle on the back of a horse, jammed between rich neighbourhoods. To the North are the fancy Leblon and the Gavea Jockeyclub, to the South the golf course and condominiums of Sao Conrado, which have a view of the ocean. Further up delta kites glide from a hilltop.

This favela is well situated. Traffic permitting, the bus can get you to Rio, where there is work, in 45 minutes.

Soca, 52, has lived in Rocinha his entire life. He knows local politics. The state has budgeted the modernisation of impoverished neighbourhoods. According to Soca Rocinha received more than a million real (400.000 Euros). Half of that money is to be spent on a cable car over Rocinha that will connect the wealthy neighbourhoods. Thus Rocinha will be opened up. Soca lowers his voice. ‘We are going the Vidigal route.’ In Vidigal, a neighbouring favela, developers are buying out residents. ‘Where are they supposed to go? They can only go to Zona Norte, but then they’ll live hours from their work.’ I ask him why he has lowered his voice. ‘That’s the way of the favela. Whoever lives here watches his words.’

Cars used to pass his door, now it is narrow to pass even on foot. Tia Lena lives across the way. Rumour has it she is 100 years old. She sits in her doorway and drinks beer. Next to her there is a sculpture of a frog. It is spitting water and brings luck. But Tia Lena is safely behind bars. Everyone barricades themselves behind locks and bars.

Good riddance

Not so long ago Rocinha was dangerous. Drug dealers laid down the law. Two years ago, in November 2011, Rocinha was ‘occupied’ – in the words of a local newspaper – by the police. With tanks and armed vehicles 3000 policemen and marines marched into Rocinha and Vidigal. They established a “new order”. This is how it goes in the favelas. First they are “pacified”. Then the police establish a post for the pacification police, a UPP (Unidade de Policia Pacificadora). Currently there are 34 UPPs in Rio; by the end of 2014 there will be 40.

Governor Sergio Cabral started this process. He was elected in 2007. That year Brazil was awarded the organisation of the Copa, the 2014 Soccer World Cup. The military actions in favelas started in 2008. Most took place in Zona Sul, the city centre and the surrounding residential neighbourhoods.

Initially Cabral gained popularity, but recently it has waned significantly. There have been too many excesses, including during the surge of discontent in June and July 2013. In the streets the mass manifestations were met with brutal repression. When looting broke out the riot police took revenge in the favelas. In Complexo da Maré, a favela next to the road to the airport, nine people were shot to death. And on July 14th 2013 there was an incident that lingers until this day. That day the UPP of Rocinha launched operation Paz Armada. A certain Amarildo da Souza was arrested. Amarildo never returned to his family. That happens in Brazil.

Maria da Rosario, state secretary for human rights, complained in early October about police death squads. Her timing was poor. The street protests were still taking place and Amarildo’s disappearance was picked up. He became a symbol. The case went public and there was an inquest. Details trickled through to the press. Agents of the Rocinha UPP questioned Amarildo, tortured him with electroshocks, suffocated him with a plastic bag and then made his body disappear. 25 policemen have been indicted.

After four years of pacification a pattern has emerged: it’s about territory. Gangs are not defeated; they are relocated. Things have calmed down in Zona Sul, under the watchful eye of Cristo Redentor. But crime has shifted to the far periphery and places like Niteroi, a sleepy town across the bay from Rio. The real concern of the politics of safety is not the gangs but rather the territory they control.

This territorial war has been raging for decades. Macau (60), an old friend of Soca’s, experienced its beginning. He is well known as a songwriter. Many Brazilians can sing his ‘Olhos Coloridos’ (“Coloured Eyes”) from start to finish because it is so a recognisable. Macau with his long dreadlocks is preto, black: ‘when I was a teenager, a bully of a cop called me ‘nigger’. He was white but had frizzy hair. A typical Brazilian, we call that sarara. Eighty percent of Brazilians have black blood. What gave him the right to swear at me?’

Macau grew up in the favela Praia do Pinto. ‘I never left the neighborhood until I was twelve. Very carioca (typical Rio). I learned to play music in the church choir. Dom Helder Camara was our priest, until the dictatorship banned him to Recife.’

The upcoming sporting events are putting extra pressure on the ground and housing markets.

 

Rio wanted more upscale residential areas, but the favela was in the way. ‘A fire was set. It burned down our samba school. Soon after we moved to another favela, Cidade de Deus. Many neighbours move to the residential barracks in Cruzada.’ But the neighborhood was torn apart and Praia do Pinto was no more. The favela was demolished. In its place came Selva de Pedra (“Stone Forest”), an upscale condominium complete with barriers and private guards, exclusive in all senses of the word. That was the beginning of the expensive neighborhood Leblon, which counts governor Cabral among its residents.

Short sighted

Rio’s real estate market has likely never been as anxious as it is now. The federal government ignited the boom with its PAC program to stimulate economic growth. In other parts of the world billions were injected into the economy in an attempt to diminish the crisis. A large part of the budget was invested in Brazilian real estate. But the upcoming sporting events are the determining factor. They are putting extra pressure on the ground and housing markets.

First off is the Copa in 2014. Tens of thousands of soccer fans will visit Brazil. The most fervent fans are paying insane prices. ‘One American made a down payment of 25.000 dollars for a two week stay.’ Says a Belgian who owns two colonial houses in Santa Teresa, an increasingly trendy neighborhood. That is the tip of the iceberg. ‘Tourist accommodation may drop in price if owners can’t find renters,’ says the Belgian owner, ‘but it will never be like it used to be. In Sao Paulo the average house increased in value by 150 percent between 2009 and 2012, in Rio prices went up by 184 percent.’

For the Copa, Brazil will use 12 stadiums, spread out across the vast country. This division will limit the price pressure somewhat. However, the Olympic games of 2016 take place only in Rio. Predictably most of the action will take place in Zona Sul: the most important Olympic sites are in Maracana, Copacabana and Barra da Tijuca. The fourth location, Deodoro, is on the Northern cusp of the city. By 2016 the price of living in Zona Norte will go up significantly.

Time is of the essence. Rio is working against the clock. But greater Rio de Janeiro (16,25 million inhabitants) counts 207.000 slum houses, of which 100.000 are in the city proper and another 9000 in the neighbouring Niteroi. Giving residents of these houses proper accommodation is not a priority. State and city are however investing in an eye-popping project in an old harbour neighborhood: Porto Maravilha (“Marvellous Harbour”). This neighborhood will make Rio proud. Its realisation has been entrusted to Porto Novo, a public-private partnership between the city and the Brazilian multinational Odebrecht. The partnership is pumping lots of public money into private accounts. When the contract was signed in 2007 it was worth 7.6 billion reals, roughly 2.5 billion Euros. That money is going to private contractors.

Rio’s urban politics are short sighted. Private contractors are given priority. The people must follow. This reasoning shows its limits in the Maracana stadium. Maracana was the largest soccer stadium in the Americas. It could hold 90.000 spectators. Even at a lesser capacity, every match was a sure celebration. But the exploitation recently shifted to private hands and the stadium is turning into a commercial complex. Soccer now must attract ‘families and affluent supporters’. For many long time supporters tickets will henceforth be too expensive.

Porto Maravilha is being developed along similar lines. The neighborhood will be an island in the city, managed by the omnipotent Porto Novo consortium. It has its own waste disposal service, manages traffic, guards the safety of its residents and isn’t afraid to spend to secure its own future. Porto Novo has a concession for fifteen years. It will be interesting to see which class will occupy it then.

Favela marketing

From the top of the favela Providencia one looks out over the most promoted part of Rio. I climbed to the top with Pedro Marafelli. I met him at the Comité PopulaRio, which is campaigning against the exclusively commercial orientation of large sporting events. Providencia is in the middle of Porto Maravilha. In fact it is an obstruction, as Macau’s favela once was. ‘These days they have a different approach,’ says Pedro. ‘Instead of burning areas down they open up the favelas to marketing. They know there are working people here, with a plasma TV and a certain purchasing power. They want to exploit that. That’s why they make the favelas accessible.’

In Providencia the cable car is ready. It needs only to be officially opened. It will go from Rio’s train station Central do Brasil to the transit station in Providencia before descending again to the harbour lane. The whole zone is within Porto Maravilha. The last station on the line is the Cidade do Samba. It is a ‘zone foreign’ complex of warehouses where the floats for the yearly carnival are built. These warehouses attract tourists and with the cable car they can also explore Providencia, the oldest favela in Rio to boot.

The construction of the cable car required the demolition of houses. Roughly 130 families were forced to move. ‘But many more will leave voluntarily because Providencia is becoming too expensive,’ says Pedro. Five years ago one could rent a house in Providencia for 250 real. Now it’s hard to find anything for less than 700. In Providencia they call it remoçao branco, silent expulsion.

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