razings continue in Rio

Homes destroyed to widen a path. Communities ripped apart. This has become the daily threat to 1/5 of the population of Rio de Janeiro, where officials are pushing to tear apart the fabric of the city and its  favelas. Rio on Watch reports on some of the latest outrages. In particular, Theresa Williamson and her worthy group CatComm, also report that Babilônia, an 80-year-old favela on the hill above Leme and Copacabana Beach, is under threat. Residents are being asked to sign away the rights to their hillside homes, with only the purported promise of a unit in a horrible housing project 2 hours out of town.

CatComm and Rio on Watch offer legal representation to these beleaguered homesteaders and want to create a community journalism program so people can document the threats to their longstanding communities live, as they happen. It's an extremely important cause.