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'Ecobarriers' Wall In Rio's Poor

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 15, 2009 12:15 PM CDT
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(Newser) – They’re called “ecobarriers,” but critics say the walls being erected in Rio de Janeiro aren’t there to protect trees. The 10-foot cinderblock walls are supposed to prevent Rio’s favelas, or shantytowns, from expanding into the rainforest, but critics say they’re really a means of segregating the poor people who live there, buffing the city’s image and Olympic hopes. “They want to cage us like animals,” says one favela-dweller.

The UN has asked Brazil about “geographic discrimination,” and the city’s Union of Civil Engineers has called the walls a “tremendous attack on people’s right to come and go.” Rio’s governor, who ordered the barriers’ construction, calls that argument a “great cowardice.” But he’s also been a noted critic of the slums, calling them “a factory for producing criminals,” where abortion should be legal.

A worker builds a wall at the Dona Marta slum in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, March 31,2009.
A worker builds a wall at the Dona Marta slum in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, March 31,2009.   (AP Photo/Eduardo Naddar)
Giant photographs of of women cover the walls of homes in Providencia slum in Rio de Janeiro, Friday, Aug. 15, 2008.
Giant photographs of of women cover the walls of homes in Providencia slum in Rio de Janeiro, Friday, Aug. 15, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes)
A man works on the construction of a wall at the Dona Marta slum in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
A man works on the construction of a wall at the Dona Marta slum in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Eduardo Naddar)
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We never had the intention to segregate people. If that was the case, we would have done it years ago. - Ícaro Moreno Júnior, the head of Rio's municipal-works company

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 6 comments
riffran
Jun 15, 2009 10:08 AM CDT
gee if the article had been about American political ideology, you might have posted statement that actually had any bearing
newsrmandan
Jun 15, 2009 8:55 AM CDT
rio is like any big city it has its good and its bad. There is however an ingrained racism/class-ism that we here in the US dont have. Don't think the poor there are hopeless though the have the beautiful game. Futebol. What else could one need.
riffran
Jun 15, 2009 7:54 AM CDT
keep them in or keep them out..it's all a matter of perspective......but wrong or right ..."they" are correct about one thing...adversity and hardship common in the slums world wide...does produce a very hard individual, and a great percentage are criminals....as a by product

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