Brazil: Areia Branco Occupation Resists Eviction Attempts While Advancing Popular Construction

Featured image: Residents gathered for a collective activity at the Areia Branca Occupation in Porto Velho. Source: AND

In the Areia Branco Occupation, located in the southern part of Porto Velho, a neighborhood is quickly advancing its construction, in a lot known to the locals previously simply as the “stolen motorcycle graveyard,” A Nova Democracia (AND) reports. Today, more than 120 working families have worked together to construct dozens of brick houses, streets and a 3,000 liter water tank have been installed.

One resident, interviewed by an AND correspondent during the Children’s Day, stated the following: “This land here never had a social function. When we arrived, we gave it life.”

The developments by the residents of Areia Branco have come amid struggle, as they have faced multiple attempts of eviction by the State. In September 2025, the Municipal Attorney General’s Office obtained a court order for repossession and a prohibition against the families laying “a single brick more,” prompting the residents to blockade the City Hall, shouting slogans like “We don’t want cake or tacáca, we want housing now!” (Tacáca: regionally popular shrimp dish) denouncing the Mayor Léo Moraes.

Two months later, escorted by Military Police vehicles, the Energisa power company entered the occupation and cut the electricity of all the occupants, while attacking the residents with pepper spray. Once again, the residents took to the City Hall ­– while the Mayor fled with his tail between his legs – and denounced the attack on their neighborhood. They also denounced the fact that while the power is cut for hundreds of families, the municipal administration squanders millions on showcases like the ice skating rink at the Porto Velho Christmas Lights event.

With no response from the authorities, residents took to the streets, blockading it with burning tires and wood, shouting slogans like “Electricity now! We will conquer the Areia Branca neighborhood!” and “It is only through struggle and rebellion that the people conquer housing!” despite the attempts by the Military Police, the residents maintained the blockade.

Months later, the electricity remains cut, with the Mayor, the courts and the energy company playing the hot potato blame game, with the judge in Porto Velho denying the admission of a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers Gabriel Pimenta (ABRAPO) demanding that the electricity be returned for the residents because “Energisa is a private company and that the court could not compel it to supply electricity to the area,” AND reports. Energisa claims that it only installs electricity if the City Hall authorizes it, while the Mayor claims that he cannot interfere in a private company’s procedures.

In recent weeks, water has run short due to the nearby Coca Cola factory’s continuous and high-volume pumping of groundwater for more than four decades. With the drop in the groundwater level, the 25-meter well in the settlement has almost completely dried up, AND reports. To solve the problem once and for all without depending on favors from politicians or the City Hall, the families decided in an assembly to drill a second well, this time 60 meters deep, to reach a deeper water source and guarantee the neighborhood’s water supply.