Prostitution Latest Target of Rio's Olympic Change
Cris touches up her lipstick in the bar's dingy mirror, getting ready to work the rush hour in Vila Mimosa, Rio's bustling working-class prostitution zone.
As dusk descends, bass-heavy music rattles metal tables on the sidewalk outside the bar, and shirtless men fire up smoky makeshift grills next to coolers of beer. Women in little more than thong bikinis or lingerie navigate the cobblestone streets, teetering on stiletto platform heels. Leaning against doorways and out of windows, they wait for clients, eyes glazed with boredom.
The area is a beloved institution or a blight, depending on whom is asked.
But like so much of this city that officials have deemed marginal, it faces the prospect of being torn down in the name of progress as Rio revamps crumbling infrastructure and polishes its image prior to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
Spelling the possible demise of Vila Mimosa is a 317-mile (510-kilometer), high-speed train the government wants to build to link Rio to the country's financial capital, Sao Paulo. The $22 billion project was promised in Brazil's Olympic proposal, and the government is expected to open bidding to prospective builders July 29.
Work on the train has not begun, but the prostitutes are already wary. If the current plans move forward, it will pass right through the neighborhood.
AP
In this photo taken May 5, 2011, a sex worker... View Full Caption
This wouldn't be the first time the women have been uprooted and relocated, said Cleide de Almeida, who grew up in the Mangue, the red-light district's original downtown location. One of 10 children of a woman who once cooked for the prostitutes, Almeida now heads the sex workers' residents and business association.
Prostitutes in Rio have witnessed seven government-led attempts to eradicate red-light districts over the past century. Two prostitution zones have been razed since 1980, most recently in 1996 to make way for the city's administrative center.
Following the evictions, the women were forced to conduct business in the open streets and in cars until they could buy property along the block that makes up the current red-light district: a former no man's land bordered by subway tracks and highways that is now bustling with business.
"There is a whole economy here: boarding houses, beauty parlors, cleaners, restaurants. Everybody's saying, 'Cleide, if the prostitutes go, can we go with you?'" Almeida said.
She said workers in the district are "definitely worried" by the prospect of relocation.
Almeida already has a new place in mind for Vila Mimosa if a move is unavoidable. But she's not talking. Last time the sex workers moved, she said, residents at their destination were waiting for them and tried to fight them off as they unloaded their moving trucks.
No one returned calls and emails seeking comment from the federal agency in charge of the train project, the Agencia Nacional de Transportes Terrestres. Spokesmen for the city of Rio and the state transportation department said neither was yet involved.
If they must be relocated, the women want something more than just a new site: Architect Guilherme Ripardo, working with the business association, has drawn up plans for a $1.8 million community center at the new, undisclosed location that would include a health clinic, child care, and professional training in everything from sewing to computer literacy.
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