In the morning of january 22nd, 2012, 2000 military police broke into the Pinheirinho settlement in Sao Paulo (Brasil) with helicopters, tanks, horses, tear gases, and began the eviction. Almost 10.000 people had been living there for about 8 yeras; they had just regularized their housing titles. But the eviction was promoted by a company whose director fled the country in 1990 for finantial crimes, and that now needs the land to speculate, keeping them empty. In preparation of 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, some 170.000 people are under eviction all around Brasil. Residents of Pinheirinho strenuously resisted the eviction, that ended with 7 dead, and tens of wounded and arrested. Public houses had been promised to the evicted, now stacked in churches or gyms; but “those in charge of building social houses are part of the same bloodthirsty, prejudiced and deceitful elites as the governants…”
- Video documentary: “Pinheirinho: a verdade nao mora ao lado“, by Coletivo de Comunicadores Populares; and a reflection on the role of independent journalism.
- Brigadas Populares, Justiça Global, Comunidades e Movimentos contra a violência, “Pinheirinho: a first narrative of institutional violence” [PDF]
- More news: Eviction of Pinheirinho settlement [vídeo] :: “Who gained with the massacre?” [article in Brasil Indymedia] :: Ten lies about Pinheirinho [article in OutrasMídias] :: A week after the massacre [artículo] :: Right, state and terror in the case of Pinheirinho [artículo en A arma da crítica] :: Communiqué of Comitês populares de Copa :: A week before the eviction [text Alliance of Inhabitants]
- Dossier: “Big events and human rights violations in Brazil” [download PDF]
- See also the Grupo de Geografía Crítica Radical (GESP)‘s webpage, from University of Sao Paulo