The Regularization of Favelas in Brazil - the Case of Belo Horizonte
| Published date | 01 June 1993 |
| Author | Edesio Fernandes |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399300200205 |
| Date | 01 June 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
THE
REGULARIZATION
OF
FAVELAS
IN
BRAZIL -
THE
CASE
OF BELO
HORIZONTE
EDESIO
FERNANDES
School of Law
,
Warwick
University
,
UK
INTRODUCTION
LTHOUGH
FAVELAS’
have
long
been
an
essential
part
of
Brazilian
cities,
the
relationship
between
them
and
the
’official’
city,
and
particularly
with
the
state,
has
always
been
extremely
difficult.
Until
the
1970s,
conflict
was
intense
and
there
were
countless
collective
expulsions
throughout
the
country.
However,
due
to
the
increasing
mobilization
of
favela
dwellers
and
partly
due
to
the
work
of
the
progressive
branch
of
the
Catholic
Church,
public
policies
concerning
favelas
have
progressively
had
to
favour
the
transfer
of
the
population,
instead
of
their
expulsion.
They
have
been
largely
unsuccessful,
mainly
because
of
the
resistance
of
favela
dwellers
to
the
poor
alternatives
usually
offered
by
the
government.
More
recently,
with
the
changes
in
the
country’s
political
scene -
caused
among
other
factors
by
the
strengthening
of
popular
movements -
some
local
authorities
have
started
to
recognize
favela
dwellers’
rights
to
remain
on,
and
keep,
their
plots
of
land.
Several
official
programmes
have
already
been
formulated
to
date,
including
both
urbanization
and
legalization
of
favelas.
Such
programmes
have
been
realized
mainly
through
urban
laws
enacted
at
the
local
level,
although
some
important
policies
have
also
been
formulated
at
the
federated-state
level.
This
article
aims
to
discuss
some
aspects
of
this
process
of
regularization,
which
is
an
extremely
important
sociopolitical
phenomenon
full
of
contradictions
and
with
very
broad
repercussions.
It
also
aims
to
examine
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
(SAGE,
London,
Newbury
Park
and
New
Delhi),
Vol.
2
(1993), 211-236
LEGAL
211
212
some
of
the
significant
and
complex
legal
questions
and
difficulties
which
have
been
posed
by
this
process,
particularly
regarding
the
nature
of the
private
property
right
as
defined
by
civil
legislation
in
Brazil.
Given
the
impossibility
of
evaluating
all
these
experiences,
the
scope
of
this
article
will
be
restricted
to
that
of
the
city
of
Belo
Horizonte,
which
has
been
one
of
the
most
significant
undertaken
so
far
in
Brazil.
Before
it
was
founded
in
1897
to
be
the
new
capital
of
the
State
of
Minas
Gerais,
the
city
had
been
the
subject
of
a
total
plan,
with
detailed
land
zoning.
No
place,
however,
had
been
reserved
in
the
plan
for
the
thousands
of
workers
who
had
been
gathered
to
build
the
new
city.
In
Belo
Horizonte,
the
first
favelas
were
founded
even
before
the
city’s
inauguration:
already
in
1895,
3000
people
were
living
in
two
invaded
areas
(Guimaraes,
1992).
More
recently,
having
become
both
the
capital
of
the
second
most
developed
state
and
the
centre
of
the
third
largest
metropolitan
region
in
Brazil,
Belo
Horizonte
has
witnessed
some
of
the
most
advanced
interventions
of
town
planning
in
the
country.
By
the
same
token,
the
body
of
local
and
metropolitan
urban
legislation
applicable
to
the
city
is
one
of
the
most
interesting
of
those
in
force
in
Brazil.2
In
particular,
since
the
early
1980s
Belo
Horizonte
has
hosted
the
PRO-FAVELA-Programa
Municipal
de
Regularizacao
de
Favelas
(Municipal
Programme
for
the
Regularization
of
Favelas),
which
is
one
of
the
most
complete
technical
and
legal
instruments
existing
on
the
matter.
Hence,
the
case
of
Belo
Horizonte
is
particularly
important,
for
it
allows
a
broad
evaluation
not
only
of
the
phenomenon
of
favelas
in
the
wider
socioeconomic
context
of
the
urbanization
process,
but
also
of
the
nature
of
state
action
and
urban
legislation
in
such
a
process.
Following
a
brief
introduction
to
the
extent
of
favelas
in
Belo
Horizonte,
this
article
will
recount
the
development
of
state
policy
to
the
issue,
culminating
in
PRO-FAVELA.
This
legislation
for
the
regularization
of
favelas
entails,
in
my
view,
a
progressive
step
especially
in
recognizing
property
rights
for
favela
dwellers.
However,
the
contradictory
stance
of
the
state
towards
such
a
radical
solution
has
meant
ineffective
implementation
of
the
legislation;
yet
the
symbolic
concessions
have
disarmed
the
favela
movement
and
integrated
much
of
its
leadership,
just
at
the
moment
that
a
renewed
mobilization
became
essential.
FAVELAS
IN
BELO
HORIZONTE
Favelas
in
Brazil
have
developed
in
tandem
with
the
urbanization
process,
and
both
phenomena
have
already
been
extensively
analysed,
in
Brazil
and
abroad
(Valladares,
1988).
Several
studies
have
highlighted
how
the
invasion
of
private
and
public
areas
for
the
constitution
of
favelas
has
been
the
most
radical
consequence
of
the
pattern
adopted
by
the
social
process
of
production
of
the
country’s
urban
space.
Brazilian
favelas
are
the
result
of
a
combination
of
historical
factors,
involving
both
the
formal
and
informal
processes
of
reproduction
of
the
social
relations
of
production,
and
especially
the
determination
of
the
costs
of
urban-industrial
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