In the urban jungle of Rio, Adilson Almeida is still reeling from the day in 2014 when bulldozers arrived in his Quilombo Camorim, an area once dominated by sugar plantations and mills where a slave owner's residence still stands.
Camorim in the middle-class Jacarepagua neighborhood gained recognition as a quilombo in 2014 and residents started a claim to a seven-acre area, said Almeida.
But they were too late - a construction firm said it had bought the land the quilombolas claim from private owners to build housing for international journalists covering the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In an emailed statement, construction firm Living said it acquired the land in accordance with the law and other government requirements and had not been notified of any claim over the area by the quilombola community.
Two years after the Olympics, most of the apartments built to house journalists are up for sale, said Almeida.
"My ancestors worked at the mill during slavery (some 300 years ago) ... it is land that has been ours for many years," said Almeida, the leader of Quilombola Camorim.
Almeida is still fighting to get full ownership of an area inside the quilombo where 20 families live.
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