Fourth generation of family waits for compensation for the construction of Brasilia

Raquel Oliveira, 35, from Rio de Janeiro, has never been to Brasília, but it is there that one of the family’s most valuable assets is located. Her great-grandfather, Álvaro Ribeiro Saramago, owned land that was expropriated in 1957 for the construction of the federal capital.

In 1975, Saramago’s son-in-law managed to gather documents and start the compensation process. The case was won in the 1980s. That was when another dispute began, to define the amount to be paid. Her grandparents, her mother —a bus driver who used to live in Cidade de Deus—and Raquel’s aunt died without an end to the argument that has lasted more than 30 years.

“There were three generations of the family that died without seeing a penny of that money. Grandpa’s life was this process. How many plans he made… He died in 2000, believing he was going to leave”, says Raquel, who lives in Cachambi, a neighborhood in the north of the country. do Rio, with her husband and two disabled children.

“Then my mother, my aunt, and she didn’t leave. They expected something better in life through this money, which was their right, but they were frustrated their whole lives.”

In addition to her, her brother, a capoeira teacher who lives in Hungary, and her cousin, a nursing student who lives in the countryside of Minas Gerais and also depend on her financially, are her successors in the process.

This is the fourth generation of the family involved in the process, which is now dealing with a new issue.

After the presentation of five expert reports with millionaire values ​​in the last decades, and many decisions of the Judiciary contested and annulled, the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories fixed the compensation at R$ 60 thousand, based on the estimated value of the land in 1957. From this money, R$ 55 thousand will still be deducted, referring to 50% of the cost of the last expertise.

The value differs from the assessments presented by the Federal District government and the Public Ministry 20 years ago (R$ 3.8 million and R$ 11 million, respectively).

“They want to pay an absurd amount. It has nothing to do with what was considered these years. It’s as if you entered a lawsuit to receive compensation and left in debt”, says Rachel.

The office that monitors the execution of the sentence estimates that the 12 thousand square meters of land near the central region is currently worth at least R$ 30 million. For this reason, it appealed in 2016 to the STJ (Superior Court of Justice), where the case is awaiting a decision.

“The law has always determined a contemporary assessment of the report, because you have to indemnify on the date you pay and not indemnify with the price back there. It could never be less than the land is worth today”, says lawyer Eduardo Gouvêa, 55, who began acting on the case when he was about 25 years old.

“They will pay almost nothing for the property and tomorrow they will put it on the Terracap auction [empresa pública do DF responsável pela indenização] and sell for R$ 30 million. If that isn’t illicit enrichment, I don’t know what is.”

In addition to taking care of the house and her two children, Rachel works making lunch boxes and sweets that she sells at the clinic where her youngest son is undergoing therapy, in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, west of Rio. As a child, she worked as a coffee picker in the interior of Minas.

He says that currently the family does not go hungry, but that the money is the hope to guarantee the future of the children, who need medical treatment and special monitoring at school, from their younger cousin. The brother also has the resources to return to live in Brazil with his family.

“The main objective is this: to be able to balance life to live with tranquility and dignity. I can’t even think about what I would do. I would have to adapt to not living in the pinch.”

Raquel claims to have hope, but at the same time she doubts whether she will be able to receive any value. “I was taking my daughter to school and talking to her: we are poor millionaires. We are entitled to receive money that never came out and I don’t even expect anything to come out. But let’s see if anything good comes out of it. . You have to leave.”

​The construction of Brasília started with the expropriation of farms that occupied the Central Plateau at the time, according to information from Terracap. But the precariousness of records at the time made the process difficult.

Currently, of the 5,800 km² that make up the entire DF, almost 10% are lands that were partially expropriated and in which there is no precise definition of which plots are public or private. In recent years, the company has sought out these landowners to enter into a demarcation agreement and friendly division of these lands.