Courts order repossession of the Silva family land

Brasília, 06/02/06 – Real estate speculation and the frequent repossession suits have place at risk the preservation of remaining quilombo areas in Brazil. A state court in Rio Grande do Sul ordered repossession of an area of 4,700 square meters where the Remaining Community of the Silva Family Quilombo is located, at Rua João Caetano, number 170, in the Três Figueiras district of the eastern part of the state capital, Porto Alegre. In the late morning today, Tuesday the 2nd, a court official went to the location accompanied by state policemen to serve the writ ordering the area to be vacated. There was resistance. The nearly 50 residents of the area of the former quilombo, descendants of through seven branches of the Silva family, burned tree limbs at the area’s entrance to prevent police Access. Representatives of the Silvas declared they will not leave and the climate remained tense for most of the day.

The Palmares/MinC Cultural Foundation is extending all the legal support possible to allow the Silvas to remain there, declares its general counsel Ana Maria Lima Oliveira. The head of the Directorate for Protection of Afro-Brazilian Heritage, Maria Bernadete Lopes da Silva, will travel today to Porto Alegre to follow the case first hand. State legislator Edson Portilho of the Workers Party (PT) was also at the site during the day and promised support, as were various local civil rights leaders.

Urban Quilombo on valuable land:
Considered the largest urban quilombo in Brazil, the Remaining Community of the Silva Family Quilombo on September 12, 2003 obtained recognition from the Palmares/MinC Cultural Foundation an anthropological and historical expert opinion and certificate of self-recognition as an area of the Black community of the Rio Grande do Sul state capital. With this opinion in hand, the Silvas, who have been fighting in the courts since the end of the 1960s to obtain definitive possession of the land and which they declare they own, have one more legal instrument to keep alive the legacy of slave descendants. The area of 4,700 square meters is located in the Três Figueiras district, one of the most coveted in the city in terms of land values.

In São Paulo, Caçandoca Quilombo resist eviction:
Scheduled to occur last Monday, May 31st, the repossession of the area of the Remaining Community of the Caçandoca Quilombo has been suspended. The residents, with the help of the Palmares/MinC Cultural Foundation, obtained an order staying their eviction from the area, located in Ubatuba, along the northern coast of São Paulo State.

An injunction granted by a local judge allowed repossession of some 210 hectares of the quilombo by Urbanizadora Continental to proceed. The land development company has been fighting with the residents since the 1970s to obtain the entire area. To intimidate dwellers, the firm, which wants to build a project in the region covering nearly 410 hectares, put animals to destroy crops and has constantly engaged in other threatening behavior, relates Antônio dos Santos, president of the Caçandoca residents’ association. .

The federal government, through the Palmares/MinC Cultural Foundation, in 2000 recognized the Caçandoca lands as a remaining quilombo area.

Reporters: Oscar Henrique Cardoso, Press Office – Palmares Cultural Foundation