Los Angeles Times - 02.08.2019

RESIDENTSVanessa Muniz Honorato, left, Heber do Prado Carneiro, Edmilson de Lima Prado and Karina

Ferro Otsuka, in a constitutional battle over land, rest at the camp in Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station.

Photographs byFlavio FornerFor The Times

K

arina Ferro Ot-

suka and her

relatives had

pleaded with the

park rangers to

spare their homes. But the

men said they were simply

following orders.

The first house they

razed belonged to a cousin

and his wife, who were given

10 minutes to remove any

possessions.

“We had to rush to save

what we could,” Ferro said.

Demolition of the one-

room, wooden structure

took the 15 rangers about

two hours as police officers

stood guard.

Ferro couldn’t bear to

watch the destruction of the

second house, which be-

longed to another cousin

and his wife and sat across a

dirt road from her own

abode.

So she turned her atten-

tion to the pot of rice and

sausage cooking on her

stove. Tears rolled down her

cheeks as the whirring of

chain saws and the pops of

crowbars echoed through

the forest.

After it was over, the

family gathered scraps of

plywood from the rubble

and placed them as rain

shields for the piles of neatly

folded clothes, steel pots

and pans and everything

else they had managed to

save.

Ferro knew her house

was next.

She and her husband,

Edmilson de Lima Prado,

were expecting their first

child in December and

planning on a home birth.

Now that seemed unlikely —

at least not in this home.

The three houses were

just five months old. The

young couples had all been

living with relatives nearby

but wanted independence.

They chose the location

near the slow-flowing Rio

Verde and small groves of

oranges, avocados, limes

and jackfruit.

The couples say that the

land has been in their family

for eight generations and

that state law — as well as

constitutional protections

for traditional coastal com-

munities known as caicaras

—gives them the right to

build on it.

But the government says

the plots they chose sit too

far inside the Jureia-Itatins

Ecological Station, an envi-

ronmentally sensitive area

three hours south of Sao

Paulo, that was established

in 1986 and is protected by

international treaty as a

UNESCO World Heritage

site.

The Forest Foundation

—part of the state agency

responsible for conserva-

tion — said in a statement

that the location where the

three homes were built is

“uninhabited, remote and is

home to the largest pre-

served area of the Atlantic

Forest in Brazil and in the

world.”

“It is not fit for occu-

pancy,” the statement con-

tinued. “There hasn’t been a

caicara community in the

deforested area where the

houses were built since

1980.”

The government sug-

gested that Ferro and her

family would be allowed to

build about six miles away

in a development that the

government set aside for

caicarasdisplaced from the

forest.

But the family said that

moving to the development

would doom its ability to live

as subsistence farmers and

fishermen.

Most other relatives gave

up that traditional life dec-

ades ago, drawn away to

nearby towns for their pub-

lic schools and health clin-

ics.

The couples acknowl-

edge that they built the

houses after the govern-

ment rejected their first

application for permission

and never got back to them

on their second.

Still, they were surprised

when the demolition crew

showed up on July 4 and

police blocked off the roads

leading to the new homes.

Ferro’s husband, Prado,

and his cousin Marcos

Prado had left early that

morning to go fishing and

wound up spending the day

in police detention.

Officially, they were held

because they had been

driving a motorcycle with-

out identification, but the

family said the real reason

was to keep them away

during the demolition.

With two of the houses

already gone, Ferro braced

for her final stand.

As the rangers stomped

toward her house, cousins,

aunts and uncles, along

with the family attorney,

who arrived as the second

home was coming down, ran

ahead and went inside.

Ferro told them to sit. As

long as they remained in the

house, nobody would be

able to tear it down.

The family pleaded with

the rangers and the police

for mercy. Ferro was preg-

nant, they noted, with no-

where else to go.

The police captain con-

ceded and told the rangers

to pack up.

Eight days later, a judge

issued an injunction pro-

tecting the home from dem-

olition by the state.

The order said that the

family had the legal right to

stay in the Rio Verde area

but did not discuss the

specific plots in question or

grant the family permission

to rebuild the two homes

that were destroyed.

The family considers the

decision a win, but their fear

that it could be reversed has

prevented them from re-

building the two houses that

were demolished.

The government says it

will fight to have the court

order overturned. A group

of anthropologists and two

state representative politi-

cians have taken up the

family’s cause.

For now, the three cou-

ples share Ferro’s house.

Friends and other relatives

take turns sleeping in tents

around the small blue house

in a demonstration of sup-

port.

“Without our land,” said

Marcos Prado, whose house

was the second to be demol-

ished, “we become folklore.”

ON THE GROUND IN JUREIA, BRAZIL

with Jill Langlois

Brazilian homestead erased

on disputed land in forest

Amid ignored pleas, residents given 10 minutes to save what they can

THE PRADOfamily’s flour production house is shown at Jureia-Itatins Ecolog-

ical Station. The couples were given mere minutes to evacuate their homes.

THE REMAINSof Heber do Prado Carneiro and Vanessa Muniz Honorato’s

house is seen from above. The houses were just five months old upon demolition.

A2 FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019 S LATIMES.COM

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