Rio’s City Hall Bulldozes Illegal Militia Buildings in Jacarepaguá Neighborhood

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Municipal Secretariat of Infrastructure and Housing of Rio de Janeiro, through the coordination of special operations, demolished seventeen irregularly built buildings in the Colônia Juliano Moreira, in Jacarepaguá, west zone of Rio de Janeiro, over the last few hours.

Militia groups had taken over the site and had been selling plots for the construction of illegal properties on the land.

Similar actions have been regularly carried out by City Hall in the Colônia Juliano Moreira, a federal area administered by the municipality. Over the past three years, 42 illegal buildings were demolished in the region.

According to City Hall, the area is the same size as the Copacabana neighborhood. In recent years, the site was used for land grabbing. The speculative activity is aimed at the development of small residential or commercial buildings and is considered one of the business branches of the militia terrorizing the residents of Rio’s western zone.

The construction strategy to avoid demolition by the municipality is similar in all areas dominated by the militia. Simple houses are erected, and families are settled there to live, thereby avoiding immediate administrative demolition.

And, on the same plot, stronger structures are built to support other floors. Within a short time, a building ends up being erected.

The action was backed by the 18th police battalion (Jacarepaguá) and the municipal guard. Some edifications had previously been embargoed, but the inspectors found total noncompliance with the embargoes through the continuation of the illegal works.