Slideshow: Sporting events bring demolition and development to Rio
All photos by Sam Cowie. Click on any thumbnail to launch slideshow. Hear and read the story.
Favela Metrô-Mangueira was once a vibrant bustling neighborhood. In late 2010, Rio City Hall set about demolishing it. The favela was situated on valuable land opposite the Maracanã stadium where the 2014 World Cup final will be played.
In 2012, FSRN spoke to Eomar Freitas. His house had been marked for demolition and his neighbors’ houses destroyed. He was one of only three that remained on his street.
In March 2013, a Brazilian indigenous community was violently evicted from the building of Rio’s former Indian Museum, that they had occupied peacefully for 6 years. It the background looms the Maracanã stadium.
Rio de Janeiro will also host the 2016 Olympics. This fisherman lives in favela Vila Autódromo which is also being threatened with removal due to its proximity to the Olympic Park.
Special forces police ‘pacify’ favela Complexo do Lins. In pacified favelas, violent crime rates have dropped. However, rent hikes in ‘pacified favelas’ are pricing poorer renters out.
Faced with increasing rents, some favela residents take to squatting. Here in Rio’s Northern Zone, around 1500 families have occupied an abandoned factory. The vast majority came after being priced out of the nearby Complexo do Alemão favela.
