One of the doughtiest campaigners against the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro watched as her home was bulldozed on Tuesday, sparking small protests in her neighbourhood and the city centre.

In recent years, Maria da Penha has become a prominent figure in the Vila Autódromo community, which has been decimated to make way for the gymnasiums, pools, arenas and other facilities that will be the focus of the world’s attention when the sporting mega-event opens on 5 August.

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After resisting longer than most, her home was brought down by a demolition team that drove in soon after dawn from the neighbouring Olympic site.

Images on the community’s Facebook page show an earthmover pulling and pushing down the walls of the building which were sprayed with defiant slogans affirming Vila Autodromo as “a legitimate community”. Municipal guards were on hand to prevent residents from holding back the Olympic developers.

Supporters at the site and on social networks highlighted the fact that the demolition took place on International Women’s Day and only hours before Penha was due to receive an award from the state legislature for her defence of home and community.

Later in the day, Penha joined a protest in the city centre. Demonstrators outside the legislature carried banners saying: “The mayor reveals his policy towards women today: Violence” and “The women of Vila Autodromo show us how to fight.” According to the @Rioonwatchlive Twitter account, women’s groups joined in a chant of “We are all Dona Penha.”

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes defended the government’s actions, saying Penha’s home was among those that had to be demolished because they were blocking an access road into the site. He outlined plans to upgrade Vila Autódromo, and build schools in the area. He said Penha and other residents would be offered free housing in the community after the improvements were finished. An aide said the mayor met Penha in recent days to discuss these plans.

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Until now, Penha and other residents have been sceptical of the government’s promises. They believe they should never have been forced to move and suspect the Olympics is being used to drive poorer communities from an area that has been targeted by developers for upscale compounds. These fears were strengthened last year, when one of the major local landowners, Carlos Carvalho - who was also a major donor to mayor Paes election campaign and part of the consortium building the Athletes Village and other Olympic facilities - said he wanted the area to be for the elite.

First settled illegally in the 1960s and 70s by fishermen and construction workers at the motor racing track that gives the community its name, Vila Autodromo’s residents fought off several earlier efforts to remove them and won legal recognition of their ownership. Until the start of the Olympic project, it was home to almost 600 families, but the vast majority have now left.

The holdouts have been resisting demolition for more than four years and have on various occasions blocked streets and petitioned the authorities. But their numbers have steadily dwindled. Some accepted compensation or alternative housing. Others have been removed by force, sometimes with bloody consequences.