Latin America

Maureen Santos debates the challenges for the environmental movements against environmental degradation on international and national level.

When created by the end of 2008, the Pacifying Police Units (UPP) was labeled as “unique police force model and came with the promise of a radical change in the state public safety policies".

Analysts believe that the sex market will be very active during the World Cup. In Brazil, prostitution is not a crime, but it is not regulated as a profession either.

The Brazilian government has planned a "sustainable World Cup". Great distances for the visitors and participants, and the immense construction works make it difficult to comply with the green agenda. Moreover: civil society actors have been largely ignored by the government initiative.

Brazilian athletes and activists choose sport trainings as a form of creative protest. They want to call attention to the dismal training conditions for the mega-event and they demonstrate: sport is more than a commercial spectacle.

In this interview professor Orlando Alves dos Santos Júnior (Research Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at Rio de Janeiro University), talks about the violations against citizen's rights that are happening in Brazil.

Elisangela's story is one among many of women heads of families who live in favelas of Brazilian cities, and who are suffering with the forced removals being carried out give way to World Cup-related construction works. Marilene de Paula tells her story.

Antonieta Rodriguês is a former resident of Campinho, a community located in Madureira, north of Rio de Janeiro City. The woman lost her home and is now engaging against the removals and the injustices arising from the construction works.

The burden for Brazil's costly stadiums is mainly carried by the habitants of the poorest neighborhoods, the favelas. That the habitants generally had little or no formal education and were insufficiently informed of their rights was exploited by the authorities.

According to the National Movement of the Popular Committees of the Cup 170,000 people are affected by evictions and lost their homes. Despite international standards for forced removals which are recognized in the Brazlian law, a majority of the affected will not be compensated adequately.

Even though Recife holds the most remote stadium built for the World Cup, thousands of people were evicted from their homes. Activist Rudrigo Rafael explains how the government ignores human rights and why development projects in Recife are killing jobs.

One question that concerns many Brazilians is about the true cost of the 2014 World Cup. The data gathered by the NGO PACS shows where investment money for the World Cup comes from and where it is going. It proofs how companies profit from billions of public money.

The rural community of São Lourenço in Recife was chosen as the place for the construction of a stadium and a real estate mega-project named World Cup Village. Hundreds of families were transferred without any alternatives or financial compensation.

The Four Sisters, Brazils largest construction companies, are the big donors to political campaigns. And also they are the big winners, as a study showed: for every dollar donated the companies recieved 6.5 half dollars back in public works contracts.

One the most symbolic cases of Brazil's protest movements against relocation, was the resistance of Vila Autódromo. The historical fight of the community located in the west of Rio de Janeiro, enormously spread around the country.

In this interview Jean Wyllys answers questions about the bill he introduced and that shall regulate the work of sex workers. He makes clear why prostitutes should have a minimum guaranteed salary.

The Brazilian Congress and the authorities approved numerous exceptions to important democratic rules in the last five years to favor private interests. It is good that the Brazilian people defend themselves against it. Even if it is to protect football.

On the night of June 25, 2013, at least 1,000 residents of the Rocinha slum, south of Rio de Janeiro, gathered to protest. They demanded the completion of all the sanitation work in their neighbourhood, instead of an expensive transportation system for tourists.

Under the justification that a huge aquarium would increase tourism, more than US$126.8 million were spent on the Acquário Ceará in Fortaleza. A questionable project for a city in which 43 percent of the inhabitants don't even have a sewage disposal system.