The Ministry of Culture (MinC) and Funarte repudiated, in a note published on Tuesday night (19), the police action of the Metropolitan Civil Guard (GCM) against artists of the container theater and the non-governmental organization (NGO) has feeling, in a building attached to the theater, in the center of São Paulo. 
Metropolitan Civil Guard agents (GCM) removed to force and using pepper gas artists from a building attached to the theater, where equipment and belongings used by the container theater were stored.
“The Ministry of Culture and Funarte vehement manifest repudiation of the police action undertaken by the Metropolitan Civil Guard of São Paulo to remove artists from the container theater and members of the NGO has a feeling of an attached building to the ground where the wall was surrounding Cracolândia, in Luz, central São Paulo, on Tuesday afternoon (19).”
The Mungunzá Container Theater is installed on site, belonging to the City Hall, since 2016. The group’s election with the City Hall is that the land is destined to the Municipal Secretariat of Culture and that the folder regularizes the situation of theater.
However, the city intends to give another purpose to the site, which is close to the region of Cracolândia. “The area occupied by the group is within a broad revitalization project of the city, including the construction of housing and leisure area,” the municipal administration said in a statement.
The administration gave this Thursday (21) as a deadline for the eviction of space. However, on Tuesday, GCM began to vacate the attached building to the theater.
“GCM carried out on Tuesday (19) an operation on Protestant Street to vacate a property located next to the containers Theater. The building, which is banned and will be demolished by the São Paulo City Hall, was invaded by a group of people who used clandestine access made from the theater ground. In the face of invasion and negative to unease the property, it was necessary to intervention,” he said GCM, in a note.
The container theater asked the city to extend the deadline for the vacancy of its facilities. However, it was not attended by the municipal administration, which claims to have dialogued with the artists for a year and offered two other spaces for the installation of the theater. Company members claim that the places offered do not support theatrical activity.
The extension of the deadline was also requested by the Ministry of Culture, which has not yet received response from the City Hall.
“In office, so far without response, sent to Mayor Ricardo Nunes by the Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes and the president of Funarte, Maria Marighella, was requested to expand the deadline given by the City Hall for the eviction of the artistic collective of his headquarters, in order to allow the understanding of the Union Heritage Superintendence for the search for a new land,” says the MinC.
