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== Origins of Cidade de Deus ==
The history of the neighborhood [[Cidade de Deus (favela)|Cidade de Deus]] (Rio de Janeiro) begins with a violent action from the state: the compulsory removal of the favelas from the so-called noble areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Promoted at the cost of home invasions, evictions and arson, the proposal put forward was to relocate entire slum populations to housing developments built in distant areas, worsening commute and occupation by these populations.

Just like the favelas of origin, however, these townhouses did not have any infrastructural service, they lacked essential public services and had to count on an unreliable public system. The leitmotiv of the removal of the favelas was to raise market value of the occupied areas, which was linked to the effort of bringing order to the city planning by the State - always selective, precarious, and excludent.

This model of commitment of the Brazilian republican State with modernization sees in the Pereira Passos urban reforms its first major investment in the modelling of urban spaces in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Meeting the needs of the capital and the interests of the elite, the proposal lacked provision of essential services to the population, like sewage, tap water, electricity, education, public health, jobs, security and safety - except this last item: proactive policing was the only service offered ostensibly by the State from the start.




The other services were added little by little as new townhouses were aggregated to the project by the State. Cidade de Deus was not built in a day. The discretionary operation of services by the State to these communities still remains a strategic action, denounced because of its selective and precarious presence throughout the following decades, which have slowly but constantly stifled the populations that live there, driving future generations into development exile and untapped potentialities.
excluding future generations from development and full potentialities abilities.

Some aspects of the removal of the original favelas that made up Cidade de Deus indicate the fragmentation of these populations, which includes the separation of families, forcing them to reestablish societal ties, especially within neighbourhoods. On top of it all, in Cidade de Deus various squats have been built in different moments during the establishment of the community, and perhaps that’s why the neighborhood may have developed a social identity mediated by these areas: Quadra 141, Vacaria, Apês, Quadra 13, Moquiço, Pantanal, etc. Among the different partnerships created in social processes of the various favela populations removed from that settlement, known as Cidade de Deus, there are samba schools; neighborhood associations; soccer teams; groups related to religious organizations of African origins, or still of Christian faith; there are also those institutions of crime, such as groups involved with robbery, subsequently leading to drug trafficking, etc.

Ever since different groups associated with crime settled in these areas, a dynamic of mutualacknowledgement recognition and clear boundary drawing has been established. During the 60s and 70s, the marihujana market took on the shape of a profitable business safer thanstore robberies. That is so because those involved did not have to stray into alien territory. Such dispute is at the heart of the war over the local cartel control.