Abreu e Lima

Abreu e Lima is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, within the Metropolitan Region of Recife, about 22 kilometres from the state capital. It covers roughly 126 square kilometres and the 2022 census counted 98,462 residents, most of whom live in the urban centre even though about three quarters of the municipal area is rural. The name honours Jose Inacio de Abreu e Lima, a Pernambuco-born soldier who fought alongside Simon Bolivar in the independence wars of Venezuela and Colombia. Over 70 percent of its territory is Atlantic Forest and protected reserves such as Sao Bento and Caetes. Local life draws on maracatu and ciranda dance traditions, the Emancipation Festival each 14 May, a large Evangelical share of the population and an economy based on commerce and general industry, especially chemicals and metallurgy. The town held the first public event of the Diretas Ja movement in 1983.