New Video the Government of Rio de Janeiro Doesn’t Want You to See (#Brazil #RJ #Olympics #WorldCup #Evictions)

By Priscila Néri | December 14th, 2011

Originally posted by Video For Change at http://blog.witness.org/2011/12/new-video-the-government-of-rio-de-janeiro-doesnt-want-you-to-see/ and at http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/bEsT3Xm7r1lx/en/206835/

Brought to my attention by @PersonalEscrito via Twitter

Roughly 170,000 people are either at risk, or have already been subjected to, forced evictions throughout the 12 Brazilian cities gearing up to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.  The number – a new estimate by the national coalition of local groups monitoring the impact of these major sporting events – was released on December 10th (International Human Rights Day) in a new report on the human rights violations associated with these events in Brazil.

The report provides a powerful counterpoint to the official narrative often repeated by local authorities and decision-makers, many of whom like to say that “nobody is being removed by force” and that “no families are being resettled without proper compensation.”

If you follow our forced evictions campaign on this blog, you know that’s just not true.

The most powerful way to prove this, however, is to let those directly affected speak for themselves.

Watch what happened when our local partners in Rio tried to speak directly to Olympics organizers during a field visit on November 11th. And watch what unfolds as Antonieta, a 31-year-old single mother who was forcibly evicted from her community in May, confronts the group to personally deliver a letter and video-dossier on forced evictions in Rio(click here if you want to see the video in English):

I first met Antonieta during a 3-day fact-finding mission led by Brazilian human rights groups in May. Then, I got the chance to know her better as we spent one week together in our Rio video advocacy training in July (see her at 1:20min of this video). Since then, we’ve been working with her and many other allies in Brazil to ensure her story is not silenced, denied or ignored.

As this week’s new report shows, Antonieta is just one of many thousands that need to be heard.

What you can do

While we wait for an official response from Olympic organizers in Brazil and Switzerland, you can add your voice to the campaign and join us in demanding no more evictions for Olympics in Rio and World Cup in Brazil.  You can:

• Share these videos with bloggers and members of the media.
• Leave your comments of support in the fields below.
• Support the local coalition of groups working with affected communities on the ground to monitor evictions.

On Twitter? Help us tweet the International Olympic Committee @IOCMedia, local Olympics organizers in Rio @Rio2016, and the mayor of Rio @eduardopaes_ and ask them to respond to our call!  Here are some suggested tweets just under the 140-character limit…

English:

@IOCMedia you must condemn #ForcedEvictions conducted in the name of the @Rio2016 #Olympics:http://tiny.cc/NoEvictions #Brazil #HumanRights

@IOCMedia @Rio2016: respond to @Amnesty @witnessorg +@ComitPopularCop letter on #ForcedEvictions in Rio #Olympics http://tiny.cc/NoEvictions

Português:

@eduardopaes_ @Rio2016 precisam responder às denúncias de #RemoçõesForçadas no Rio para as #Olimpíadas de 2016 http://tiny.cc/RemocoesZero

@eduardopaes_ diz que #RemoçõesForçadas estão dentro da lei no Rio; vídeos provam o contrário: http://tiny.cc/VideosRemocoes #Olimpíadas

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English transcript for the video above (please also note the link above which will provide this same video with English subtitles): 

Showing Revision 0, created 12/14/2011 by PriscilaN .

1. 0:00 – 0:03
   Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. 0:04 – 0:17
   WITNESS and its local partners in Rio joined forces with Amnesty International to call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to take a stand against the forced evictions of communities in the name of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
3. 0:17 – 0:31
   After the IOC declined to meet with civil society groups in Rio, local activists and victims of forced evictions gathered on November 11 to hand-deliver a letter and videos to IOC members visiting Rio.
4. 0:32 – 0:34
   Antonieta - Activist, arbitrarily evicted in May
5. 0:34 – 0:40
   We came here today to fight for affected communities and fulfill the goals of our project with WITNESS.
6. 0:40 – 0:47
   We're taking advantage of the fact the IOC is in Rio today
7. 0:47 – 0:59
   to deliver a letter and a few videos so that they know about the irregular evictions that are happening in Rio.
8. 0:59 – 1:05
   And so they can take action for this to be a clean Olympics.
9. 1:06 – 1:10
   We're going to wait for them to come out (of the hotel) to approach them.
10. 1:10 – 1:15
    We'll try to hand them the letter as they're getting into the car.
11. 1:23 – 1:25
    Laura - Activist
12. 1:25 – 1:33
    I just tried delivering the letter to the mayor of Lausanne
13. 1:33 – 1:40
    and to another person that had an IOC name-tag,
14. 1:40 – 1:46
    but when I asked if I could leave the letter with them,
15. 1:46 – 1:49
    they said no, that they had no interest.
16. 1:49 – 1:58
    I said I would leave it anyway, and they just left it on the table and got up and walked away.
17. 1:59 – 2:02
    I think we could try again...
18. 2:02 – 2:11
    Unable to deliver the letter at the hotel, the activists decide to try one more time.
19. 2:11 – 2:16
    We're persistently going to the Chapéu Mangueira (community) to deliver the letter to them.
20. 2:16 – 2:20
    They need to know what's been done to us.
21. 2:20 – 2:24
    Outside of Brazil, they always talk about how wonderful the World Cup and Olympics are for Rio de Janeiro,
22. 2:24 – 2:26
    but that's a big lie.
23. 2:26 – 2:33
    For all that to happen, many homes and lives are being destroyed. As for the legacy -
24. 2:33 – 2:42
    All the homes being destroyed and transformed for the World Cup and Olympics,
25. 2:42 – 2:45
    will anything be useful to us afterwards?
26. 2:46 – 2:56
    At the Chapéu Mangueira community, the activists catch up with representatives of the Municipal Olympic Company and delegates from the World Union of Olympic Cities during a technical field visit.
27. 2:56 – 2:59
    They take advantage of a pause to introduce Antonieta.
28. 3:04 – 3:06
    Vitor - Epistomancia Collective
29. 3:22 – 3:27
    Watch the reaction of this man, Bernardo Carvalho, director of the Municipal Olympic Company in Rio.
30. 3:44 – 3:51
    Bernardo and his colleague try to prevent the letter from being delivered to a reporter, but activists still manage to deliver it.
31. 4:36 – 4:38
    Where did you live?
32. 4:38 – 4:39
    Largo do Campinho.
33. 4:39 – 4:41
    Where is that?
34. 4:41 – 4:42
    (International Journalist)
35. 4:42 – 4:45
    Jacarepaguá, it was evicted...
36. 4:46 – 4:52
    I'm very happy because we came here to deliver the letter to the Olympics organizers.
37. 4:52 – 4:59
    We managed to deliver it, and now we're going to wait for them to read it and take action.
38. 4:59 – 5:10
    We have faith that they'll at least be aware of some of the harm being caused by the Olympics.
39. 5:10 – 5:13
    How the Olympics has hurt many people.
40. 5:13 – 5:16
    I know that many good things will happen because of the World Cup and Olympics,
41. 5:16 – 5:22
    but they need to change the way they treat communities during evictions and expropriations.
42. 5:24 – 5:28
    Later that day, the activists returned to the hotel to deliver copies of the letters and DVDs to the
43. 5:28 – 5:34
    IOC representatives that did not attend the Chapéu Mangueira visit.
44. 5:35 – 5:45
    A collaboration between WITNESS and Amnesty International, Comitê Popular Rio Copa e Olimpíadas, Conselho Popular do Rio de Janeiro, Movimento Nacional de Luta por Moradia.
45. 5:45 – 5:46
    Produced by
46. 5:53 – 5:57
    A very special thank you to Antonieta for courageously sharing her story.
47. 5:57
    The campaign continues at: blog.witness.org and portalpopulardacopa.org