The Salgado Filho aeroporto that has turned into “Porto Alegre airport”: Fraport’s expulsion of Vila Nazaré
“It’s sad that we are still the exiled from our own land” As Brazilians, we are used to having to question the narratives of development. On or next to our territories, a series of unfulfilled promises are imposed, reproducing the sad reality of social marginalization. Land occupied by people that depend upon it to live, work and reproduce is considered uninhabited, relegating entire communities to invisibility. This criticism reflects what has happened to the Vila Nazaré community, in the northern zone of Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Initially expelled due to the encroachment by agribusiness in the countryside during the 1960’s, the families that occupied the Vila form part of the rural exodus phenomenon to the outskirts of the state’s capital. An uninhabited area, without any public services, upon which dozens of workers started organizing their lives, weaving their social and cultural fabric throughout the territory. Through the strength of popular organizing, together they conquered access to water, electricity, health center, schools. One day however, supposed development arrived. In March of 2017, city hall started to expand its interest in the northern Porto Alegre. A swamp area that is being filled in for the advancement of the “production sector”, which also includes the Salgado Filho Airport’s expansion, and not the people. Around this time, the airport concession was granted to the German company, Fraport. Maybe the word concession presents a consensus imagery; however in reality, it has actually established the brutal privatization of a public service for 25 years. What does this mean for people’s daily lives – an increase in costs for the services provided, the establishment of additional tariffs, or the gates that are currently being raised. The logic of profit maximization prevails over the public interest. For this project, Fraport invested R$ 382 million, aimed at attending planes with a capacity for heavier loads. The government narrative was to establish the promotion of regional development while facilitating widening transport logistics, which included the airport’s expansion. There was complete disregard by state authorities with respect to the destiny of the 2 thousand families that lived there. The only state agency to manifest concern regarding responsibility resulting from the impacts, relocation and eviction was FEPAM (the State Environmental Protection Foundation). It is important to also note that, in the signed concession contract, Fraport agreed to its responsibility for the costs of relocating the community, as is affirmed in the lawsuit filed by the federal and state prosecutors and public defenders against Fraport. Submerged in a scenery of uncertainties and with Fraport’s utter refusal to dialog with the community, the families started experiencing a violent process of expulsion. All the evils of megaproject infrastructure are reproduced in this region: total denial of collective negotiation by prioritizing the individualization of conflict; criminalization of leaders and promotion of a negative image of the community, lack of access to information and non-payment of indemnity. Disregarding Fraport’s contractual obligations, the municipality assigned to the families new public housing complexes, namely Nosso Senhor do Bom Fim and Irmãos Maristas, faraway from the region of the Vila. The option was offered in a precarious manner at the end of the eviction process, after the families had resisted lack of water, garbage collection, public lighting and had had their schools and health center razed. What’s more – during the eviction, Fraport did not even recognize the legally established residents’ Association and sub-contracted the engineering company ITAZI, infamous for evictions, to carry out the process, outsourcing its responsibilities, consequently highlighting its negligence. The administration of the illegal evictions counts with the complicity of the State through the Brigada Militar (name given to the military police in Rio Grande do Sul). Various errors have been pointed out in relation to the municipality’s position: the failure to utilize available areas near the Vila, namely to diminish the impact of the lost territory; the fact that the public housing complexes were constructed with resources from the Federal program “My House, My Life”, which should have been designated to the city’s existing housing deficit and not to act like a compensatory policy at the behest of a foreign corporation. Furthermore, the complexes lack the array of public services like schools, hospitals and public transport, and present construction defects. As is true not only of capitalism, history repeats itself tragically, the families of Vila Nazaré were evicted to give space to the runway expansion. Each person that left the Vila had their house destroyed, a sign to those remaining that this territory had a new owner. The owner listed on the deed, without actual occupancy, was duly indemnified; where as the majority of the community, with an occupancy of more than 50 years, was forced to relocate. And as part of the sad saga of the displaced, MTST (Houseless Workers Movement) has made efforts to bring together those evicted in the Porto Alegre’s northern region, in the Ocupacao Povo Sem Medo (People without Fear Okupation), demonstrating the availability of other territories in the region, and creating a space of resistance against the eviction. From “aeroporto” to “airport” The privatization of public service removes the orientation of its social and collective destination, loosing even more its character through relief and tax exemptions. Once there is no social or financial return to the collective, there is the loss of control and common administration. Meanwhile the logic of profit prevails, everything becomes an object of merchandising. Therefore, after the privatization, the Salgado Filho Airport started to be called ‘Porto Alegre Airport”, being managed by a transnational company that has no commitment to the local reality. Data found by City Councilor Mateus Gomes’ mandate (PSOL) have demonstrated that Fraport has been granted R$ 71 million in 2022 through an exemption of property taxes and amnesty of fines and fees. Meanwhile, the families relocated to the housing complexes are barely surviving with a complete lack of services. If we consider the company’s compensation of R$ 4 million for the construction of an
