«Reorganise the Slum»: Military Intervention in the Favelas After the 1964 Coup in Brazil
Journal title STORIA URBANA
Author/s Philippe Urvoy
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2024/177
Language English Pages 21 P. 119-139 File size 276 KB
DOI 10.3280/SU2024-177007
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Several authoritarian regimes of the 20th century had in common the implementation of an «authoritarian urban planning» (Haeringer, 2002), while the reorganisation of space was seen as a tool for the transformation of society according to political ideals. The housing conditions of the working classes and the management of slums were often important issues in such planning policies, as we can observe in the case of the Brazilian Military dictatorship (1964-1985). The paper analyses the intervention of the regime towards informal neighbourhoods through the case of Belo Horizonte. The reflection focuses on a military intervention targeting all the favelas of the city and their residents’ unions, examined through police investigation reports, press articles and reports of municipal council debates. The analysis leads us to reflect on the modes of political management of urban informality during the Brazilian military regime. Through our case study, we propose a typology of the different modi operandi adopted by the dictatorship towards favelas, from the strict slum clearance policies to the financial disengagement, through to the «progressive unslumming» trend. Based on the specificity of the urban policies developed in these territories by the regime, the article highlights some aspects that would reinforce the sui generis social-legal condition of the favela in the Brazilian city.
Keywords: Brazilian Military Dictatorship, Slums, Slum Clearance Policies, Urban Planning, Law Enforcement, Social Movements.
Philippe Urvoy, «Reorganise the Slum»: Military Intervention in the Favelas After the 1964 Coup in Brazil in "STORIA URBANA " 177/2024, pp 119-139, DOI: 10.3280/SU2024-177007