One Man, One City, Three Evictions

Transcript

RIO SCRIPT

01:00:03:06 My name is Altair Guimarães.

01:00:07:17 I was evicted three times in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

01:00:12:24 This is my story.

01:00:28:01

One Man

One City

Three Evictions

01:00:35:03

Around 6 million people live in the city of

Rio de Janeiro, with about 1.5 million

living in favelas or informal settlements.

01:00:42:21

Many of the urban poor live under a constant

threat of removal and eviction.

01:00:51:08

It's very difficult to bring about change, not only in this country but in the world as a whole.

01:00:55:04

But I carry on fighting and I will continue to do so

because of my children, my grandchildren.

01:01:02:00

Because I'm now 62 years old and this has been

happening to me since I was 14!

01:01:06:06

In my 60 years there has been no

improvement at all.

01:01:13:03

Title:

Ilha dos Caiçaras

1955-1969

01:01:19:00

My time here was the best time of my life...

my teenage years, my childhood.

01:01:27:02

Today, everything here has changed.

01:01:30:22

Sometimes all these memories come flooding back.

01:01:35:14

There were wooden shacks here,

and I used to fish.

01:01:40:13

I would walk from here to the beach,

I was very close to everything.

01:01:46:08

It was a wonderful childhood.

01:01:52:01

Ilha dos Caiçaras was one of three favelas which existed alongside a private members' club on the banks of the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.

01:02:00:11

I worked for this club when I was a kid.

01:02:03:02

I was a ball boy for the tennis players.

Lia Seixas - Daughter of one of the founders

of Clube Caiçaras

01:02:06:21

It's an oasis of tranquility that brings peace

to the families here.

01:02:12:10

Their children can also enjoy the peaceful environment away from the city's violence, because it's a protected place.

Altair Guimarães

01:02:21:05

I used to work here as a kid and I never came back,

I didn't have the opportunity to go inside.

01:02:27:03

When the community was born, so was the club.

01:02:31:06

And the club stayed here while the community left.

01:02:34:00

Why did we have to leave?

Professor Orlando Santos Junior

Rio de Janeiro Federal University

01:02:40:23

The dictatorship was a period when this repression and wave of evictions was strong.

01:02:48:07

Areas such as favelas or slums by the riverside

were subject to real estate interest.

01:02:55:21

If they bothered, in any way, the upper or middle classes who lived close to those areas,

01:03:01:12

you would see periods of

repression and eviction.

Altair Guimarães

01:03:06:06

We had to leave because the governor

at the time, Lacerda,

01:03:10:16

said we were damaging the environment and

killing the fish, which was a lie.

01:03:15:05

In truth, what they were doing here

was social cleansing.

01:03:19:19 Caption -

'Lagoon free of favelas by March'

01:03:25:05

I remember, the trucks pulled over,

we were caught by surprise.

01:03:32:05

They started to demolish the shacks and

throw the contents into garbage trucks.

01:03:37:21

They weren't even removal vans,

they were garbage trucks.

01:03:41:24

And this leaves a mark on any child,

any adult, any elder.

01:03:46:11

When I walked up Juá Street, tears were pouring from my eyes, because I was leaving a place that I knew and loved,

01:03:55:11

and I was going to live in a place that

I had never even visited.

01:04:00:06

I had never even been there before.

01:04:05:22 Title:

City of God

1969-1992

01:04:38:05 Caption:

City of God was built in the early 1960s to house families systematically displaced from favelas in Rio's south zone.

01:04:47:09

Many people from different favelas

were all mixed up there.

01:04:52:20

There was no way you could live there without

feeling you were in a concrete jungle.

Indio da Costa

Municipal Secretary for

Urbanism, Housing & Infrastructure

01:05:00:16

When you talk about God's City, it was

wrong to do that in that way.

01:05:06:15

The problem is that, in the whole of Brazil,

01:05:09:20

they started to build these buildings away from parts

of the city that already had infrastructure.

Altair Guimarães

01:05:20:01

What was supposed to be a model city

turned out to be hell.

01:05:31:19

Ilha dos Caiçaras was a quiet community.

01:05:35:03

There was no risk.

01:05:37:17

When I moved to City of God,

drug trafficking was king.

01:05:44:16

It was war.

01:05:49:08

Each gang controlled a corner.

01:05:51:17

So each one wanted the other's spot,

01:05:54:01

and because of that there was war,

and there were shootouts.

01:05:58:12

Bullets would fly over my roof and I'd have to get my daughters out of bed and throw them on the floor.

01:06:04:04

I lost many friends here.

01:06:08:19

Today it's different - now, it's

the police against them,

01:06:11:22

but it still exists, it still happens,

people still die.

Indio da Costa

Municipal Secretary for

Urbanism, Housing & Infrastructure

01:06:20:07

A lot of people suffered until today and will probably,

in years to come, still be suffering.

01:06:27:05

Living in areas where the drug traffickers give

the orders, so this is very bad.

01:06:34:20

But now we're trying to build people near their work,

01:06:37:17

and also in places that you have transport, you have

all the things that you need to live.

01:06:45:01

It was just an urban solution,

01:06:47:06

and we need, much more than this,

a social solution.

01:06:50:06

And they come together.

01:06:51:24

It's impossible to improve people's lives

doing this separately.

Altair Guimarães

01:06:57:02

Even though it was very violent, I lived here from

my teenage years until adulthood.

01:07:06:19

I was removed from here because of the 'Yellow Line'.

01:07:11:09 Caption

YELLOW LINE

01:07:14:04

This connection will be here in October 1996,

01:07:17:08

with the 'Yellow Line':

01:07:18:21

the most important urban intervention

being built in the country.

01:07:25:12

The route starts near City of God.

01:07:31:20

They wanted to build the 'Yellow Line', so there was a removal of houses from City of God.

01:07:38:10

And my house, where the government had resettled me, was located exactly on that route.

01:07:44:07

So once again I had to be removed.

01:07:47:09

Unlike other forced removals that occur in our country due to property speculation, here it was for the public good.

01:07:55:06

So it was understandable.

Professor Orlando Santos Junior

Rio de Janeiro Federal University

01:07:58:05

Are evictions necessary for urban development?

01:08:00:17

The answer is simple, no.

01:08:03:14

However, it's cheap, it's cheap to evict.

01:08:06:10

How come the middle class remain?

01:08:09:05

Why is it that when you build a train track,

you don't destroy a luxury complex?

01:08:14:10

Because, through engineering, a route is devised

01:08:17:19

that safeguards the rights of middle and upper classes

to stay where they are.

01:08:22:03

Therefore it must be possible to treat the lower classes

in the same way.

Altair Guimarães

01:08:26:08

I didn't see this as a removal, but as a resettlement, because I was rehoused within City of God.

01:08:32:19

Even so, it really messed me up because

I had already been through an eviction.

01:08:40:21

My family stayed there.

01:08:46:04

You can't forget your origins.

01:08:49:18

We see each other often because

you don't forget your family.

01:08:55:03

It's a matter of getting used to it,

we were born and raised here.

01:08:59:21

Habit and necessity!

01:09:01:21

No one lives here because they like it, they live here because they have no alternative.

01:09:08:03 Caption:

In 1992, Altair finally decided to leave City of God to move to a safer place.

01:09:15:18

When I left City of God and went to Vila Autódromo,

I went to live in paradise.

01:09:24:13 Title:

III

Vila Autódromo

1992-2015

01:09:32:07

When you live in harmony with your neighbours,

every day you are happy.

01:09:39:01

If today I have my place, my home, it is thanks to God

and to him.

01:09:43:15

Because it was him who helped me and if he hadn't,

I wouldn't have a home.

01:09:50:17

Altogether, we had 800 houses.

01:09:55:02

This was a very calm place,

a place to raise children.

Naomy O.G. Guimarães

Daughter

01:09:58:24

My home, my place is Vila Autódromo,

because there's no place better.

01:10:04:14

I had many friends, I was always outdoors, playing,

I knew who my neighbours were.

01:10:08:15

Everybody would welcome me, and anybody

who would go there.

01:10:11:10

We were family, you know.

01:10:12:21

If you needed any help, all you had to do was shout

and people would come to help.

01:10:18:08 Caption:

Despite having property titles, residents

of Vila Autódromo had been under threat

of eviction for decades.

01:10:22:19

When Rio was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games,

pressure to remove the community intensified.

Altair Guimarães

01:10:29:00

When I got to Vila Autódromo I understood that the issues around removals were still very present there.

01:10:36:00

They wanted to remove Vila Autódromo,

so I decided to take up the fight.

01:10:40:16

I became community president, to fight against

the government's dismantlement.

01:10:46:06

I left no loopholes so that the city

couldn't do what they usually do,

01:10:53:06

which is to arrive with trucks in

the dead of the night,

01:10:56:13

demolishing homes and sending people 30km away,

as they always do.

01:11:03:21

In the end, it became an unequal and cowardly struggle because of money.

01:11:12:01

On 3rd June 2015, a court order was issued

to forcefully evict a family.

Maria da Penha

Vila Autódromo resident

01:11:18:10

We thought it was so wrong, and unfair.

01:11:21:19

So we tried everything we could to negotiate.

01:11:25:05

We said, 'This family isn't going to be forced out.

01:11:27:18

You'll have to beat us up before that happens.'

01:11:31:23

They did beat us up.

01:11:34:00

Many residents were beaten up.

01:11:35:24

Not only me, but Altair as well,

01:11:37:13

also the elderly man who lived in the house.

01:11:41:00

I was beaten up, they broke my nose,

but I kept fighting.

01:11:48:01 Caption:

Amidst mounting media attention, the city offered residents more money to leave.

Altair Guimarães

01:11:57:00

I started to lose the fight then, with the amounts

they started to pay.

01:12:02:06

Some families, not that they didn’t deserve it, left here

with two, three million reais ($600k-900k USD).

01:12:09:08

Families that earned the minimum monthly salary

of 800 reais ($260 US).

01:12:13:00

There is no way you can say

to a resident, ‘don’t go’.

01:12:16:06

They’ll end up leaving because the dream of their life is to have some comfort and this money gave them that.

Indio da Costa

Municipal Secretary for

Urbanism, Housing & Infrastructure

01:12:25:16

You can't stop the development of the city because you have people living in an area where you need to build.

01:12:34:21

So, these people, they have rights.

01:12:38:14

The municipality pays for their lands, their houses

and they move.

01:12:43:12

The whole world works like this.

Altair Guimarães

01:12:48:11

And they gave me 1.4 million ($450k US).

01:12:51:00

I'm not going to say that my house was worth that much but I had never seen that much money before.

01:12:55:09

It was like a lottery prize!

01:13:00:18

A poor person would never be able to resist that amount. That's why they managed to remove.

01:13:11:12

If I could go back to Vila Autódromo today,

I would.

01:13:15:06

I would give up this apartment for any little house there,

I'd pay the owner and I would go back there.

01:13:21:16

Because after Ilha dos Caiçaras, my favourite place

to live was Vila Autódromo.

01:13:28:18

Leaving there, you lose your history, your contact

with your neighbours.

01:13:34:11 Caption:

More than 22,000 families around the city were removed in the run-up to the Rio Olympics.

Many without property titles received no money.

Indio da Costa

Municipal Secretary for

Urbanism, Housing & Infrastructure

01:13:44:04

For me? They did a crime.

01:13:47:10

Because you cannot remove a group of people

and put them 30, 40 km away

01:13:55:05

from where they used to live for a long time.

01:13:57:23

Of course, if you need to remove, you should remove

to an area next to the place where people lived.

01:14:05:06

It's as easy as that.

01:14:07:00

But at the same time, the Olympic Games has a date,

so you cannot just stay five, 10 years dealing with this.

01:14:17:13

And what they did was - okay, put them away and let's do what we need to do for the Olympic Games.

Altair Guimarães

01:14:25:13

The Games, these events are a wonderful thing.

Who doesn't like sports?

01:14:30:07

But the majority of these removals happen because of man's greed, property speculation and money.

01:14:40:09

I still visit other communities who are going through the same process as Vila Autódromo, such as Horto.

01:14:48:18

So I haven't given up the fight.

01:14:54:05

I know it's very difficult to face such a confrontation.

01:14:57:10

They are all armed.

01:14:59:00

They have shields and helmets while we

have nothing to protect us.

01:15:03:24

I have a young daughter, I don't want her

to witness the removal.

01:15:10:01 Caption:

Horto is a community on the edge

of Rio’s Botanical Gardens.

The families descend from those who originally

built the gardens 200 years ago.

01:15:19:11 Caption:

Since the 1960s, the community has fought to remain. Today, around 200 homes are under

threat of eviction.

No one is sure when or whether they

will lose their homes.

Marcelo de Souza Alvarenga

Former Horto resident

01:15:29:21

The feeling we have in Horto

is that we're a big family.

01:15:33:22

So throwing a resident out of here is like

throwing a fish out of water.

01:15:41:15

When it came to my removal,

01:15:44:00

they said, ‘it’s 28’.

01:15:46:09

For a fraction of a second, a million things

run through your head.

01:15:52:00

I said, 'now it’s my turn, now it’s real.'

01:15:58:00

We could hear them start to throw tear gas bombs

and use pepper spray.

01:16:05:00

The policeman who seemed a bit more sensitive and had been talking to me the whole time,

01:16:09:14

he said to me, 'Marcelo, they are preparing to

throw a tear gas bomb in here.

01:16:13:23

Outside, a tear gas bomb has such an effect,

imagine one inside a room, inside a house.'

01:16:21:01

So I called everyone and said, 'guys, I can’t

be responsible for your lives.

01:16:27:18

Let’s give up the house.

01:16:30:10

It’s over.'

01:16:37:00

The reason they gave for evicting us was,

this house is not yours.

01:16:43:19

The term 'invader' is often used.

01:16:47:05

‘Invader’...

01:16:49:06

I was born here and I learned to walk

crawling on these steps,

01:16:53:11

and then, ‘poof’.

01:17:00:07 Caption:

The 2,000 residents of Horto are resisting plans by the Botanical Gardens to remove them from the land and have filed a case in the Supreme Court.

Indio da Costa

Municipal Secretary for

Urbanism, Housing & Infrastructure

01:17:08:20

For them the culture is, of course,

I lived here since I was born,

01:17:13:24

so I'm the owner of this house, my mother's house,

my grandmother's house.

01:17:17:16

But the thing is that Horto is an area

in a federal botanical park.

01:17:23:03

In areas that are protected, it's not so easy.

Rafael Mendonça

Lawyer for AMAHOR

(Residents' Association in Horto)

01:17:27:06

It's very frustrating, because

we have good legislation,

01:17:31:14

but there's a discrepancy between our legislation

and how it is excecuted by the judiciary.

01:17:39:04

Honestly, the legislation was made to cater to the needs of these communities, but it's not enforced.

01:17:44:11

If Horto were located on the fringes of the city,

it would have been legalised by now.

01:17:50:00

The problem is that Horto is located in one of

the most expensive areas of Rio.

01:17:54:05

That is the main issue.

Professor Orlando Santos Junior

Rio de Janeiro Federal University

01:17:58:21

The lower class has no alternative for survival other than informally occupying areas the market isn't interested in.

01:18:10:06

And every now and then, those areas constitute borders of real estate market interest.

01:18:17:11

Therefore this urbanisation process that we have in

Rio de Janeiro and in the biggest Brazilian cities,

01:18:23:11

it's perverse, because it permanently evicts

the lower classes to other areas,

01:18:30:07

which, in turn, will also be reappropriated

in the future by the real estate market.

01:18:35:10

It's a cycle.

01:18:36:09

Until it is stopped, until there are new laws that protect the lower classes, this cycle will tend to repeat itself.

Altair Guimarães

01:18:45:09

I want to take this opportunity to make

an appeal to all the world's rulers,

01:18:51:11

that before they carry out a removal, they take into consideration human life.

01:18:58:05

Naomy took part in almost all of the meetings and assemblies with me, and still participates today.

01:19:06:04

So that she could understand

that life isn't easy.

01:19:09:14

So I always tried to pass this on to her.

Naomy O.G. Guimarães

Daughter

01:19:13:03

The lessons I learnt from my father are that we should never roll over for the government,

01:19:17:02

we must fight for our rights no matter what,

01:19:19:10

and we have the right to question unfair

governmental decisions.

01:19:22:20

You better keep fighting.

01:19:25:23

There is a saying that we have here - we are just like bamboo, we bend but we don't break.

01:19:33:12 Caption:

As part of the Olympic bid, the city promised

to upgrade all favelas by 2020, but that

programme has been suspended.

Every year, 15 million people are displaced around

the world due to development projects.

01:19:45:11

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR

Nicky Milne

01:19:48:11

REPORTER

Jo Griffin

01:19:51:04

EDITOR

Tim Moss

01:19:53:23

CAMERA

Edward Davies

01:19:56:16

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Film: One Man, One City, Three Evictions

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