Riomar Trindade and Flavia Villela Reporters Agencia Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – After the tragedy, with over 180 confirmed deaths, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, has issued a decree ordering the removal of inhabitants in areas of risk and authorizing the use of force to do so if necessary.
According to the mayor, there is no way he will change the decision to remove people from the hillsides. “There remains a risk of more rain in the city. We cannot leave people in these areas of risk,” Paes declared at a press conference this morning.
The decree cites sections in Article 5 of the Brazilian constitution which allows authorities to take action when there is imminent danger due to a disaster (“desastres, em caso de risco iminente”).
However, local civic associations in some slums have strongly criticized the measure. The Association of Santa Teresa Inhabitants (Amast) declared that they “…did not want the mayor coming around to lament the dead. What we want is immediate, effective action by the authorities to ensure that new disasters do not happen.”
Speaking of effective disaster response, there are reports that federal government budgetary funding for emergency disaster relief was distributed in an odd way. In 2009, 90% of the funds went to the state of Bahia. Less than 1% went to Rio de Janeiro. The ministry doing the distributing was National Integration. The minister of National Integration left the administration last week to run for governor of Bahia.

Allen Bennett - translator/editor The News in English - - contains additional information