Plans to surround a Rio de Janeiro slum with a 650m-long concrete barrier have come under fire from environmentalists and human rights activists.
Brazil authorities say the US$436,000 “ecobarrier,” which would encircle part of the famous Dona Marta slum, is intended to protect the nearby Atlantic rainforest from illegal occupation as well as to improve security and living conditions for slum residents.
As tenders for construction of the 3m-high wall opened on Monday, critics claimed the project was a form of “social apartheid,” comparing it to Israel’s security barrier.
SEGREGATION
“This is something that is very similar to what Israel does to the Palestinians and to what happened in South Africa,” said Mauricio Campos, from the Rio human rights organization Network of Communities Against Violence.
He said a wall would serve only to “segregate” slum residents from the rest of society.
The wall is expected to be completed by the end of this year and, according to reports in the local press, may be followed by similar barriers around Rio’s other slums, known as favelas. In a statement, the state governor, Sergio Cabral, who ordered the “eco-limit” fence to be built, said it was part of moves by his administration to improve living standards and protect residents from the armed gangs that control many of Rio’s 600 or so slums.
“What has happened in Rio de Janeiro over the last two decades has been the passivity of authorities in relation to the uncontrolled growth of the slums,” he said.
Such walls would, Cabral said, help the city deal with “drug trafficking and vigilantes, [by] putting limits on uncontrolled growth.”
FAVELA IN FILM
Dona Marta is home to an estimated 7,500 people. The favela was the setting for an award-winning documentary about cocaine by the British film-maker Angus Macqueen, as well as a 1996 Michael Jackson music video directed by Spike Lee.
Jackson’s producers were forced to negotiate access with the local drug traffickers. Since last November, however, the shantytown has been under 24-hour police occupation as part of a state government initiative to make Dona Marta a “model favela.”
The pilot project aims to rid the favelas of traffickers using a mixture of military force and “hearts and minds” community policing. A soccer pitch was recently opened in Dona Marta as part of a redevelopment program, which includes new houses as well as the controversial wall.
Rio’s environmentalists say that unless low-cost housing options are given to the poor who live in the favelas they will continue to encroach on the hillsides of the city and into the surrounding rainforest.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person