Housing policies and peri-urban urbanization in the Amazon Region: the case of the Mártires de Abril Settlement, Mosqueiro, Belém, State of Pará

Abstract

This paper analyzes the constitution of the Mártires de Abril Settlement, an initiative by the Landless Workers Movement in the municipality of Belém since 1998. The focus is the implementation of the Casulo Settlement Project, made possible by the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform and the Minha Casa Minha Vida Rural Program, by the Municipal City Hall of Belém and the Caixa Econômica Federal bank. We discuss the reach of public actions in order to understand a peri-urban dynamics present in the Amazon. The paper analyzes the complex layout of the settlement, molded by the action and lack of action from public policies in different scales and temporalities. By limiting itself to a technicist, restrictive and simplistic view, the governmental apparatus ignores the specific set of social and spatial dynamics that are manifested because of their own interference. Conflict is then harbored both by their dissociation from those very policies, which are constantly in internal contradiction, and overlooking the heterogeneity of the settlement.

Keywords:
Settlement of the Landless Workers Movement; Casulo Project; Minha Casa Minha Vida Rural Program; Metropolitan Region of Belém