ABSTRACT
This chapter explores in detail the reasons why the urban reform project called Porto Maravilha (Marvellous Port) has not worked as expected. Accordingly, the attempt to financialise and to reintegrate the port district into capital accumulation partially failed, because of popular resistance and because of the multiple and persistent crises, which have affected Brazil since 2014. The chapter reconstructs the links between the global financial crises of 2008 and its impacts in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and the port area, in particular. In the context of crisis, a new wave of expropriations (of workers’ pension funds, of State resources) has been activated in order to guarantee profits for investors. To contain mobilisations and protests against expropriations, the State has reinforced its mechanisms of repression and punishment. This has been dramatically intensified since January 2019, after the far-right politicians Jair Bolsonaro and Wilson Witzel became, respectively, the President of Brazil and the Governor of Rio de Janeiro.
