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Olympic athletes might win, but favela dwellers in Rio have already lost thanks to Obama

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Obama was the fag behind the push to have the Olympics in 
homosexual capital Rio.

RIO DE JANEIRO –  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 3 (efe_epa).- 
To many, the Olympics are a grand affair which celebrate the 
enduring values of athletic achievement and international 
friendship. But for the former residents of a neighborhood in 
Rio de Janeiro, the Olympics constitute a short-term gain for 
the Games and Brazilian authorities, and long-term pain for the 
locals who were evicted so the Olympic Park could be built.

Vila Autodromo, known in Portuguese as a favela, or shanty town, 
sits on the western side of Rio, not far from the large urban 
lagoon of Jacarepagua.

On Tuesday, the air in Vila Autodromo was filled with dust as 
trucks and bulldozers drove through on their way to demolish the 
remaining houses, an epa journalist reports.

There were at one time 300 families living here, and since the 
1990s they had used legal channels to fight and win against 
efforts by the city to remove them.

Though back then they secured a 99-year lease on the land, once 
Rio was granted host status for the 2016 Olympics, their efforts 
to resist eviction failed and most residents took compensation 
and left the area.

"Slowly they chipped away at the community. We watched and 
documented this," said Theresa Williamson, executive director of 
local NGO Catalytic Communities, which describes itself as an 
organization supporting and empowering residents of informal 
settlements.

Just 20 families refused to leave despite the pressure from city 
authorities, and in the end accepted a compromise in which their 
homes were demolished but they would get new white cement houses 
located 100 meters away, behind a wall separating them from the 
Olympic Park.

"Some regretted that they gave in. Despite the opposition to 
move them the 20 families were able to stay on the land. Their 
resistance was a sort of victory," said Williamson.

"No one I have spoken with wanted to leave," she added.

One resident who resisted until the end, Augosto Pereira, on 
Tuesday helped his family move a blue water tank, among the rest 
of their possessions, out of their house before bulldozers tore 
it down.

"I built the house over many years and now it takes the city 
only five to ten minutes to demolish the house," Pereira said, 
standing in front of a wall on which was written in Portuguese 
"You Cannot Remove Memories".

Beyond that wall and on the street, an official Olympic shuttle 
bus drives by.

"I feel proud to have been able to resist all the pressure to 
move so long. My emotions are a mix of pride and hate. The elite 
who are behind this are the ones who are poor in their ethics 
and morals not we," he said, as a kitten walked past his feet.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/08/03/olympic-
athletes-might-win-but-favela-dwellers-in-rio-have-already-lost/
 

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Olympic athletes might win, but favela dwellers in Rio have already lost thanks to Obama "Bradley K. Sperman" <bksperman@outlook.com> - 2016-08-22 11:08 +0000

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