Eco-wall or segregation: Rio plan stirs debate - CNN.com: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNN) -- Cement-block walls are being built around the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. Authorities say it's to save rainforests. The city's poorest residents say it's an attempt to shut them out.
When Francisco de Moraes looks at the wall, it angers him. He has one of the best views of Rio, overlooking the city, its shimmering beaches and Sugarloaf Mountain jutting from the sea.
'We don't have the right to have our opinion heard,' he said.
He speaks during a break from a soccer game on a makeshift cement field that's wedged in by the wall. The 'eco-wall,' as officials call it, runs up next to his house and around most of the Santa Marta shantytown where he and about 7,000 others live.
'The state government walled us in, so more houses wouldn't be built in the forest,' de Moraes said. 'But people felt imprisoned, like they were setting borders and limiting when we could come and go.'
The state of Rio de Janeiro began building the wall around Santa Marta in March, and it plans to spend $17 million on similar walls around the shantytowns.
