Rio is done for… Except it’s not

Rocinha, seen on a winter afternoon from the Dois Irmãos mountain

It’s tough to read the lack of noise, after years of great activity. But the silence in Rio, both this blogger’s as well as that of many others, is no hollow space. We’re lost in thought. How did we get here? What are the important questions? What works? What gets you nowhere?

Soldiers patrol the deserted Olympic Boulevard, part of the revitalized Porto Maravilha, on a Monday morning

Raull Santiago is an untiring Complexo do Alemão activist, married and father of four. He helped lead the resistance to the police invasion of private homes in the Complexo, which lasted from January to April of this year. At the surface of facts alone, the situation was clear. The police had no legal right to take over the houses.

Every day we perceive…