A federal regional court in Brazil has delivered a blow to opponents of overpass construction in the urban area of Fortaleza, which they say would harm the local ecosystem, by overturning an earlier ruling that put a stop to the project, paving the way for construction to begin. The proposed construction project in Cocó Park, Fortaleza's largest natural reserve, sparked an Occupy movement to attempt to stop it, but members of the occupation were eventually forcibly removed from the park. A Federal Justice court ruling on 8 August, 2013 had prohibited the construction of the two overpasses alongside the park, but it was knocked down by the Federal Regional Court of the 5th Region (TRF5). That decision was made on 14 August 2013 by federal judge Edilson Pereira Nobre Júnior, acting president of the TRF5, after the city government, which supports the construction, petitioned in the same court against the project's suspension. According to his ruling, “the city government claims the justification of damage to the environment is not sufficient for interrupting the project”, the federal judge argued: a paralisação da construção dos viadutos causará maior prejuízo à ordem e à economia públicas, tanto por impossibilitar que a sociedade possa usufruir de melhorias no trânsito da região, como por impor severos prejuízos a serem suportados com verbas públicas. the interruption of the overpass construction project will cause more damage to public order and economy, both for preventing society from enjoying the improvements to local traffic congestion, as well as for imposing severe losses to be borne by public coffers. On 13 August, one day before the ruling was suspended, public prosecutor Oscar Costa Filho and other opponents to the construction over the trees of Cocó Park had a meeting in the city of Recife [en] with the TRF5 president to tell him that the overpass construction had not gone through an Environmental Impact Assessment, but that argument didn't seem to affect the judge's decision. In Fortaleza, over the past 15 years the traffic intersection of Engenheiro Santana Jr Avenue and Antonio Sales Avenue has been a very heavy one. To alleviate the situation, the city government proposed building two overpasses on site, taking over a bit of Cocó Park's area and about one hundred trees. Civil guards attack demonstrator. Photo taken from the Facebook page “Dunas do Cocó” [Dunes of the Cocó] On 12 July 2013, ten citizens outraged by the destruction of trees stood in front of the bulldozers to protect the remaining dozens of trees required to begin the construction. The Occupy Cocó was cleared with violence by agents of the city's civil guard very early in the morning, around 3 a.m. on 8 August. There was a clash among the civil guard and about 200 protesters, who were camping in the grounds of Cocó Park for 28 days. Approximately 300 agents of the Special Operations Group of the city's civil guard of Fortaleza took part of the operation to clear Occupy Cocó. During the operation, teargas bombs and rubber bullets were used by the civil guard, and protesters say police acted with exaggeration. University professor Geová Alencar denounced the police action: Reiniciamos o manifesto no meio da rua, gritando palavras de ordem e, de repente, a polícia veio para cima, jogando bombas de efeito moral. Todos nós corremos sem entender. We took the protest to the middle of the street, shouting rallying cries, and all of a sudden the police ran towards us, throwing bombs. We all ran, with no clue why they did that. The Rapadura Mídia collective shared on Facebook a series of five videos with the live coverage of the early morning clearing on 8 August. A short documentary produced by Canal Popular presents testimonials of protesters after the clearing of Occupy Cocó Park. This short video shows the trees cut down as well as the presence of civil guard agents and the protesters: Guards used pepper spray to disband protesters. Photo taken from the Facebook page “Dunas do Cocó” [Dunes of the Cocó] The Brazilian section of Greenpeace released a statement on the case: De fato, a obra é polêmica. Em primeiro lugar, por confiar na expansão do espaço viário como forma de solucionar o problema de congestionamento, o que significa insistir em uma falácia muito criticada pelos especialistas – os carros se comportam como gases, quanto mais espaço há, mais espaço ocuparão, pelo fato de que a melhora no tráfego estimula mais pessoas a utilizarem o carro, levando ao congestionamento novamente.