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Maria da Glória, 59, left beans and meat ready in the refrigerator and went to pick up her 11-year-old grandson at school. On the way back, they just had to re-heat the food and have lunch. When they arrived home, shortly after noon, they found the food was gone—and so was the refrigerator, the dishes, and most of the furniture and utensils from their residence.
Almost all of the furniture and goods from the house where Maria da Glória lived with her husband and grandson, in the traditional Cajueiro community in rural São Luís, Maranhão, had been placed into a moving truck by dozens of men paid by the Terminal de Uso Privado Porto São Luís. This company—TUP—was formerly WPR São Luís Gestão de Portos e Terminais S/A, headed by the same president of the WTorre group. The company claims they own the land, where it plans to build a private port with the Chinese infrastructure giant called China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) as the venture's majority shareholder.
To read the full version of this story in Portuguese, visit The Intercept.
MARIA DA GLÓRIA, 59 anos, deixou feijão e carne já prontos na geladeira e foi buscar o neto de 11 anos na escola. Na volta, era só esquentar e almoçar. Quando chegaram em casa, pouco depois de meio-dia, não encontraram mais a comida, nem a geladeira, nem os pratos, nem a maioria dos móveis e utensílios da residência.
Quase toda a mobília da casa onde Maria da Glória morava com o marido e o neto, na comunidade tradicional Cajueiro, zona rural de São Luís, Maranhão, havia sido colocada em um caminhão de mudança por dezenas de homens pagos pela empresa Terminal de Uso Privado Porto São Luís, a TUP – antiga WPR São Luís Gestão de Portos e Terminais S/A, comandada pelo mesmo presidente do grupo WTorre. A empresa alega ser dona do terreno, onde pretende construir um porto privado com a transnacional chinesa de infraestrutura China Communications Construction Company, a CCCC, sócia majoritária do empreendimento.