The action lasted over 14 hours, leaving one dead, dozens of injured and thousands of angry citizens. As Rio de Janeiro’s military occupation reaches the 6 month mark, all analysis points to it’s colossal failure. Shootings have increased by 40%, there have been 2600 murders, and 736 people were killed by the police. The drug […]
Deaths in massacres have increased while arms apprehensions have dropped, according to data from the Candido Mendes University Center for Security and Citizenship Studies’ (CESeC) Military Intervention Observatory. Five months after the start of the Rio de Janeiro military occupation, a new study shows the resounding failure of the operation, which was decreed by President […]
Thousands march against increase in violence, mass evictions and criminalization of social movement leaders On June 5, bus caravans arrived in Brasilia from across the country, carrying members of the nation’s largest urban social movements, representing over 1 million organized homeless workers. For four days, they camped out and marched on the nations capital, holding […]
City, State and Federal Governments abandon victims of Paysandu fire and building collapse By Benedito Barbosa On May 1, a former federal police building that was occupied by squatters caught fire and collapsed on Paysandu square, killing an undetermined number of people and leaving 455 homeless. 34 days later, dozens of families are still sleeping […]
By Brian Mier. In the early morning of May 1, a 24 story building on Paysandu square in central São Paulo caught fire and collapsed. There are three confirmed deaths and 36 people are still missing. The building was a squat which was home to 140 families. The fire department was quick to the scene […]
Although squatters are frequently treated as criminals in the national and international media, according to article 5 of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, any citizen who does not own property has the right to occupy any abandoned tax-scofflaw building and pressure the government to convert it to ownership-based social housing. In São Paulo, a dozen buildings […]
According to the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, land banking is a crime. Unlike in, for example, the United States, it is illegal for a landlord to hold a building empty for years, without paying real estate taxes or maintaining the property, waiting for real estate values to rise so that he can flip it. If […]
The Guardian kicked off a week of coverage about São Paulo today, as part of its Rockefeller Foundation sponsored “Cities” Series. Although part of this content appears to be generated with support from local news non-profit Agência Publica and respectable local journalists like Leonardo Sakamoto, the series opens with erroneous information. Today’s headline says, reads […]
The Rise, Success and Decline of the PT Party’s Virtuous Cycle Model of Urban Governance. By Brian Mier. In 1964, the US helped overthrow democratically elected, center-left president Jango Goulart and install a military dictatorship in Brazil, which lasted for twenty-one years. As the government arrested and tortured peaceful protesters, several different groups started armed […]
Original version of article at COHA. Reproduced with permission. This interview was originally conducted in Portuguese, and translated by the author. Erminia Maricato is one of Brazil’s most renowned urban planners. In addition to having published 11 books and contributed nearly 40 book chapters, her lectures, often in public forums and protests, regularly draw large […]