politics | behind the bright lights of the olympics (Reply)

The Olympian War on Brazil's Poor

EVERY DAY in the favelas, the slums that surround Brazil's major cities, these international athletic festivals are vividly recalling the ways of The Brick. Amnesty International, the United Nations and even the International Olympic Committee, fearful of the damage to its "brand," are raising concerns. It's understandable why.

In early May came a series of troubling tales of the bulldozing and cleansing of the favelas, all in the name of "making Brazil ready for the Games." Hundreds of families from Favela de Metro find themselves living on rubble with nowhere to go after a pitiless housing demolition by Brazilian authorities. By bulldozing homes before families had the chance to find new housing or be "relocated," the government is in flagrant violation of the most basic concepts of human rights.

As the Guardian reported, "Redbrick shacks have been cracked open by earth-diggers. Streets are covered in a thick carpet of rubble, litter and twisted metal. By night, crack addicts squat in abandoned shacks, filling sitting rooms with empty bottles, filthy mattresses and crack pipes improvised from plastic cups. The stench of human excrement hangs in the air." One favela resident, Eduardo Freitas, said, "It looks like you are in Iraq or Libya. I don't have any neighbors left. It's a ghost town."

Freitas doesn't need a Masters from the University of Chicago to understand what is happening. "The World Cup is on its way, and they want this area. I think it is inhumane," he said.

The Rio housing authority says that this is all in the name of "development," and by refurbishing the area, they are offering the favela dwellers "dignity."

Maybe something was lost in the translation. Or perhaps a bureaucrat's conception of "dignity" is becoming homeless so your neighborhood can became a parking lot for wealthy soccer fans. And there is more "dignity" on the way. According to Julio Cesar Condaque, an activist opposing the leveling of the favelas, "between now and the 2014 World Cup, 1.5 million families will be removed from their homes across the whole of Brazil."MORE