When the government announced on national TV that the World Cup and Olympics would be here,
everyone thought it would bring progress, that was everyone's first reaction - rich or poor.
Then, the manner in which things started being done is what turned out to be wrong.
8,000 people have already lost their homes in Rio de Janeiro since preparations began for the
2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.
This is one of their stories.
I've lived in Pavãozinho since I was 7 or 8 years old.
It's peaceful and calm here, as you can see.
The people are nice, everyone is friendly.
I like it here very much, I wish my mom could get the house so I could live with her.
I love my community, and I want to stay here.
No one will take me away from here.
Everything started here in the community in January of 2011.
I wasn't even home at the time, only my daughter and niece.
They asked for the owner of the house, and I told them my mother wasn't home.
And then they said they were going to tear the house down, right then and there.
So I said: 'No, you can't, my mom isn't even home'
(And they said): 'so you have to call her, because it has to happen now'.
And then I called my mom and she came up right away, running.
When I got here, the house was already flooded, they had removed the water pipes.
There were several men from the city government, with sledgehammers.
So I tried to negotiate a deadline to leave,
so that I could find another place for us to stay, we had no other place to go.
Where were we supposed to stay, in the middle of the street?
So he told my daughter: 'Talk to your mother, she's being too stubborn, tell her to leave,
or else she's going to end up getting hurt.
And at that moment I was very scared,
because a bunch of police officers, city guards,
all of them pressuring me, saying that if I didn't leave on good terms I would leave on bad terms,
so I realized what was happening was dishonest, something outside of the law.
And my daughter was asking me to go, so I did.
I don't like to remember that.
After Elisângela lost her house, her daughter had to go live with her grandmother,
and ended up missing six months of school.
Over a year later, the family still hasn't been compensated or ressettled by the government.
Mother and daughter are still living separately.
And then they promised to give me another house.
After two months of me going (to City Hall) every day, they offered a house in Campo Grande.
So we got the address and went to visit the condo where they had built these houses.
We got to Campo Grande after two and a half hours.
And then to get to the house we had to take another bus,
because there's only one line that goes all the way there. (60km from downtown Rio)
There's not a single shop on the street, there isn't a school,
so we had to consider all of this,
and I decided not to accept the house.
Every day I would go to City Hall, sometimes they wouldn't meet with me,
or they would say no one was there, tell me to come back.
So I stood in the hallway to wait for (Housing Secretary) Jorge Bittar to go to lunch.
When he goes to lunch, I'll stop him.
And that's what happened!
When he was going to lunch, I grabbed his arm and said:
'I live in Pavão-Pavãozinho, SEOP (government agency) went to my house and demolished it,
without giving me any prior notice, without any compensation or resettlement,
they gave me this piece of paper saying I would get another home in three months at most,
and up to now nothing has happened.
So he took down my contacts and said one of his secretaries would get back to me.
That secretary never answered my calls.
It's been more than a year now since they promised the resettlement, and still nothing.
Despite stories like Elisângela's, Rio's municipal government continues to say that all expropriations
are being done according to the law and in respect of human rights.
(Jorge Bittar, Municipal Housing Secretary - Nov/11)
"Nothing will be defined without dialogue with the (affected) residents."
"Nothing. There will not be any impositions."
(Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes - March/11)
"We've already done more than 3,000 expropriations of houses, buildings, shops."
"The expert makes an assessment and the government pays an adequate and fair amount."
"In fact we've paid very adequate amounts."
How do you respond to someone who reads the paper or watches TV and believes
the assertions being made by Mayor Paes and Secretary Bittar?
Even I believed that before it happened to me and my neighbors!
We believed it, because we see all the commercials...
We don't know if it's true or not, but the way they present it makes it seem real.
My feelings after all that happened, one year after my house was demolished,
are of indignation.
I get angry because, as you see, I have all the documentation, all the receipts
that prove how much I spent and invested in my home.
Nothing was given to me for free.
Everything was bought with lots of sweat and years of work.
If I walked into an elevator and ran into Mayor Paes, I'd have a lot to say to him.
I'd tell him my story, and say that it's similar to millions of other families in Rio.
I'd also say that he won my vote (last time). I campaigned for him, I believed him,
and next time that's definitely not going to happen again.
I won't vote for him or whoever he's supporting, and I'll campaign against him, for sure.
Everyone from the communities will do the same, because no one is stupid.
Still living away from each other more than a year later, mother and daughter see each other on weekends.
My dream for my daughter is something she's already told me she wants.
When she finishes high school, she wants to study French or Italian culinary.
She's the one who wants that.
She's seen me cook since she was 7, and today she cooks very well too.
I miss my mom sometimes, of course, I had always been raised by her and close to family.
But I hope to live with my mom again.
I'm going to keep fighting until the end.
Until the courts say I win or lose, it doesn't matter, I'm going to keep fighting.
I handed it over to justice, and I'm confident I will win.
More than 20,000 people are still at risk of losing their homes in Rio.
We demand an end to forced evictions, respect for our laws, and the guarantee of the right to housing in our city.
Share this video and join the fight for a #RioWithoutEvictions
http://rio.portalpopulardacopa.org.br
A special thanks to Elisângela and Angel for sharing their story and for the courage to keep fighting.
Produced by