segunda-feira, 16 de janeiro de 2012

Violent eviction in Sao Jose dos Campos

Resistance and struggle in defense of housing rights
Pinheirinho is an urban settlement that has existed since February 2004, in Sao Jose dos Campos; a city located about 100 km from São Paulo, Brazil.

Live in the area about 2 000 families, about 9,000 people, mostly women, children and elderly.

The land measures one million three hundred eighty-two thousand meters square. The alleged owner is the mega speculator Naji Nahas, which claims the area by a bankrupt company called Selecta. This company has never had workers, therefore, has no debt labor. The only lender that remains to be paid is the Municipality of Sao Jose dos Campos, with a debt of nearly $ 5.53 million.

Negotiations for the settlement Pinheirinho among the residents, through their association, the National Housing and the State Department of Housing, together with the City, proceeded for more than a year. The process had not been completed because of the number of families involved and the bureaucracy of government agencies.

Despite all these initiatives and events for the regularization Pinheirinho, on 20 August this year, Judge of the 6th Civil Court of Sao Jose dos Campos reactivated a 2005 injunction that had already been cleared. Despite the irregularity of the decision, the judge insists on the eviction.

Since the City strangely, fell in his position not to pose difficulties for legalization, and now hides behind this ruling. Refuses to sign up Pinheirinho Cool City Program, which is the requirement of the State Department of Housing to make the design of the urban area and that, in turn, would be presented to the National

Department of Housing. With this partnership of the three spheres of government, the conflict involving 9,000 people would be solved.

The new situation is that the courts insist on doing the eviction and the City changed its position and ended up working for the occurrence of a violent eviction.

An eviction in Pinheirinho, the largest urban settlement in the country, may be bloodier than the one which occurred in Goiania, in 2005, there were hundreds of deaths and injuries. It is a tragedy foretold.
Everything indicates a massacre if a police raid, due to the large number of people.

The center is already consolidated with brick houses, streets laid out, avenues, squares, places for public facilities and conservation areas maintained. Almost all the houses already built and in accordance with the normative standard that says the city's master plan. The opinion of the technical CDHU is that all this can be used.

An eviction could become a violent conflict, with inevitable death. Residents built their homes with great sacrifice. Have nowhere to go and are willing to endure.

In this sense we are to call all the organizations and movements in solidarity with our struggle, because the occupation of Pinheirinho is not a police matter, but rather the case of public policy. We must remember, above all, that the right to life comes before the right of ownership.

We reject the decision of Judge Marcia Loureiro, and this attitude of intimidating by public security organs.

We join with the community Pinheirinho and we demand of Alckmin the Government, responsible for public safety in the state, not to authorize any action seeking the eviction of the ground, now housing of workers fighting for the right to housing. It is necessary to avoid what could turn into a real tragedy.

Motions to:
General Secretariat of Presidency of the Republic
sg@planalto.gov.br

Governor of São Paulo State– Geraldo Alckmin
galckmin@sp.gov.br

Mayor of São José dos Campos city
gabinete@sjc.sp.gov.br

Secretaria de Segurança Publica do Estado de São Paulo
Secretário Antonio Ferreira Pinto
seguranca@sp.gov.br

Secretaria de Habitação do Estado de São Paulo
Secretário Sílvio França Torres
Fax: (11) 3638-5100
faleconosco@habitacao.sp.gov.br

Presidente do Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo
presidenciatj@tjsp.jus.br

National Office of Human Rights.
Ministra Maria do Rosário Nunes
direitoshumanos@sdh.gov.br

Supreme Justice Court
presidencia@stj.jus.br

Judge Márcia Faria M. Loureiro
sjcampos6cv@tjsp.jus.br

Copy to CSP-Conlutas:
secretaria@cspconlutas.org.br

Um comentário:

  1. Brazil is getting though on what it considers slums; slums that are a breeding ground for drug trade and other criminal activity because of the upcoming hosting of the Olympic Games. Apparently this attitude extended to an area where no such problems persists. Since e-mails are handily available organizing a massive petition flood could prove effective in removing the injunction, including the judge who issued it would be a good idea.

    Public defender Jairo Souza Salvador seems to have sound ideas as to how the city should have resolved this.

    Getting international media attention could do the trick as well, try Al Jazeera, RT and CNN.

    I don't presume to understand the complexity of this problem, but it seems to boil down to a sum of about $5.5 million dollars that the city is owed - getting that money together or negotiating and obtaining grants to lower the amount required to obtain ownership might do the trick. $5.5 million/9000 that's about $611 dollars per resident not exactly a fortune to keep people in their homes - the cost of eviction, continued litigation, providing alternative housing etc is sure to far surpass that figure.

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