Sao Paulo: The People’s Cup is the ironic name given to a new favela springing up almost in the shadow of the brand new Corinthians Arena, host for the opening game of the World Cup in Sao Paulo on June 12.
A dusty patch of stony land with just a few trees dotted around for a nod to nature, the slum is a huge contrast to the hundreds of millions spent at the swanky stadium and other investments in the Cup.
A few miles from the futuristic stands of the new stadium, slum dwellers eke out an existence as they battle to put a makeshift but affordable roof over their heads.
Hundreds of families decrying property speculation in Brazil’s giant business metropolis staged a protest at the site last Saturday.
Residents organized the rally around the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), three days after some 1,000 MTST demonstrators clashed with police over delays in expanding affordable housing in the Sao Paulo metro area.
The mayor’s office has conceded that the sprawling city of some 11 million is short of around 700,000 housing units.
The MTST is furious that Brazil’s leftist government has spent billions of dollars on World Cup preparations rather than attending to the country’s huge social and infrastructural needs.
“This land has lain empty for 40 years and we came to occupy it as every family needs a home,” says Patricia Siqueira.
“These are the great contrasts in Brazil, which wants to show itself as a perfect country” during the World Cup, she says.
“But it isn’t as we lack health, education and housing,” MTST member Siqueira tells AFP.
The group said last weekend that Cup investments “are not reaching the people who need them most” while around a billion reais ($450 million) has been spent on the stadium.
“Families occupying the site are living in areas of risk, slum areas or are unable to pay rents owing to property speculation resulting from the construction of the stadium which will host the opening of the Cup.”
By Monday, more than 1,500 families were at the site in eastern Sao Paulo and organizers of the protest expect more yet.
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