CADERNOS 19 FERNANDA CAIXETA CARVALHO AND FLAVIA DAMÁSIO SILVA Tourism and slums: A study about Favela Santa Marta and the role of the Pacification Police Units in Rio de Janeiro FERNANDA CAIXETA CARVALHO AND FLAVIA DAMÁSIO SILVA Tourism and slums: A study about Favela Santa Marta and 251 the role of the Pacification Police Units in Rio de Janeiro Fernanda Caixeta Carvalho graduated in Tourism from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (2010) and is currently doing a Master’s Degree in the Ur- banism Graduate Studies Program (PROURB) at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FAU-UFRJ). She was part of the team that drafted the Master Plan for the Integrated Development of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte. [email protected] Flávia Damásio Silva has a Master’s Degree from the Urbanism Graduate Studies Program at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the Fed- eral University of Rio de Janeiro (FAU-UFRJ; 2011). She also has a specialization in Urban Engineer- ing from the Polytechnic School (UFRG; 2008). She is currently participating as a Technical Support scholarship holder in the research project: Urban- ism in Societies at Risk: Planning Strategies for Interaction in Urban Spaces in Areas of Conflict PROURB-FAU-UFRJ. [email protected] CADERNOS 19 FERNANDA CAIXETA CARVALHO AND FLAVIA DAMÁSIO SILVA Tourism and slums: A study about Favela Santa Marta and 252 the role of the Pacification Police Units in Rio de Janeiro ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to examine the production of urban space within the context of fomenting tourism, linked with the history of public safety policies of the city of Rio de Janeiro, particularly the Pacification Police Units (UPPs). As a case study, we will present an analysis of the development of tourism in Favela Santa Marta, located in the district of Botafogo, in the southern zone of Rio de Janeiro, after the Pacification Police Unit was implemented there in 2008. It was the first community in the city to receive a UPP, which were created to regain territorial control of the fave- las. This paper will also present the effects of tourism in relation to the integration of favelas into the formal city. The ultimate goal is to reflect on possible planning stra- tegies, linked to tourism and public safety policies and their impact on this unique kind of environment. Keywords: Tourism; Safety; Conflict; Favela; UPP. CADERNOS 19 FERNANDA CAIXETA CARVALHO AND FLAVIA DAMÁSIO SILVA Tourism and slums: A study about Favela Santa Marta and 253 the role of the Pacification Police Units in Rio de Janeiro Introduction ourism is a complex and transformational phenomenon. Over time, it has Tbuilt a network of sectors that are dependent upon it. Tourism is a vital contributor to the global economy, especially in many developing countries. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the tourism industry, in 2008, was responsible for 9.6% of global gross domestic product and accounts for approximately 8% of the world’s jobs. In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is a pivotal state for promoting tourism in the country. The city itself is the one most visited by international tourists. According to data from 1999 and 2000, tourism in Brazil grew by 91%, while in the city of Rio de Janeiro this activity expanded by 104%. In 2010, data from the Brazilian Tourism Company (EMBRATUR) indicated that Rio de Janeiro is the country’s most visited city, when the purpose of the trip is leisure. These figures are expected to rise even more, bearing in mind that the city will be hosting two major sporting events, the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Although Rio de Janeiro receives many tourists from around the globe, data indicates that the city of Rio is one of the most violent in the world, with a high mortality rate caused by urban violence, mainly affecting young men and the population living in informal low-income communities. A unique feature of the city is the proximity between these communities and traditional middle and upper class neighborhoods, making urban conflicts stand out even more. In an effort to prepare the city for these two international mega events, the main focus of the public safety policy of the State of Rio de Janeiro has been the implementation of specific police operations in different shantytowns domi- nated by drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro. In December 2008, the Pacification Police Units (UPPs) started being implanted in these communities. One of their purposes is to create a “security cushion” in the vicinities where these sports events will be taking place. What would be ideal is that the installation of the UPPs in Rio’s favelas could result in the renewal, inclusion and integration of these shantytowns into the formal city. The investments slotted for the two sports events that will occur have the po- tential to transform the city and its population. The projects submitted for the World Cup and Olympics include urban, economic, social and environmental regeneration. Rio’s shantytowns have always been the focus of a more exotic type of tourism, but due to the violence in these communities, they have not been part of the traditional tourist circuit. After the deployment of the UPPs, the number of visi- tors to the favelas started to increase, largely foreigners. This is already having an effect on these communities and local residents. CADERNOS 19 FERNANDA CAIXETA CARVALHO AND FLAVIA DAMÁSIO SILVA Tourism and slums: A study about Favela Santa Marta and 254 the role of the Pacification Police Units in Rio de Janeiro This study, therefore, endeavors to explore how tourism has helped integrate the favelas into the formal city, using Favela Santa Marta as a case study, which received the first Pacification Police Unit in Rio de Janeiro in 2008. It will also analyze the effects of this new public safety policy in Rio de Janeiro and its relationship with this integration process and the encouragement of tourism. The Growth of Slums in Contemporary Cities The world has urbanized even faster than was predicted by the Club of Rome in its 1972 report, “Limits of Growth”. According to Mike Davis, in Planet of Slums (2006), data from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Popula- tion Division, World Urbanization Prospects, showed that, in 1950, there were 86 cities in the world with over one million inhabitants. Today, this number has risen to approximately 400 and studies indicate that, in 2015, there will be at least 550 cities in the world with over one million people. Thus, cities have ab- sorbed nearly two-thirds of the world’s population explosion since 1950. Cities do not stop growing, and along with this growth, the rates of urban vio- lence also go up. Studies show that within the next five years more than half the world’s population will be subjected to some sort of crime. There are a number of reasons for this increase in crime rates, which, in turn, intensifies urban conflicts, the most common being: racial discrimination, socioeconomic inequalities and illegal activities. In developing countries, including Brazil, there has been an increase in urban violence in both informal and formal areas of cities. These urban conflicts are often a result of processes of exclusion and spatial segregation. The violence is taking on social, economic and cultural characteristics, and its effects are being felt in a striking fashion. An example of this is the progressive abandonment of public spaces, which in turn generates urban lifestyle changes and leads to the increasing confinement of the population to places considered to be safe. Thus, instead of being constructed out of glass and steel, as earlier generations of urbanists had envisioned, the cities of the future tend to be built, overall, with exposed bricks, straw, recycled plastic, cement blocks and scrap wood. Instead of cities of light hurtling upwards, much of the urban world of the 21st century settles down in squalor, surrounded by pollution, excrement and decay. In fact, the world’s one billion urban dwellers living in postmodern slums can even look with envy, for example, upon the ruins of the sturdy mud homes of Çatal Huyuk, in Anatólia, built at the dawn of urban life nine thousand years ago. (DAVIS, 2006, p. 29 & 30) CADERNOS 19 FERNANDA CAIXETA CARVALHO AND FLAVIA DAMÁSIO SILVA Tourism and slums: A study about Favela Santa Marta and 255 the role of the Pacification Police Units in Rio de Janeiro Brief History of the Slums in Rio de Janeiro The emergence of the slum as a form of urban settlement in Rio de Janeiro is linked to the housing crisis of the 19th century and political crises such as the Armed Revolt (1894-1895) and the War of Canudos (1896-1897). According to Mauricio Abreu, the occupation of the Santo Antônio and Providência hills was by order of the government, to house soldiers returning from these military campaigns. In 1927, urbanist Alfred Agache developed a Remodeling Plan of the nation’s capital, which at that time was Rio de Janeiro. The Agache Plan, which was not put into practice, sought to transform Rio de Janeiro into a monumental-type city. It was the first official document that addressed the issue of slums. In the Plan, slums were viewed as a social and aesthetic problem, where the only so- lution would be to eradicate them. In 1937, the Building Code of the city recognizes the slums and contains the first public policy that deals with them. The Code proposed the elimination of the slums, prohibiting the construction of new residences and improving those already in existence.