NEWSLETTER

BY BRIAN MIER, PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS ENGLE

A patrol unit in the Dona Marta slum in the beachfront Botafogo district of Rio. Drug traffickers were driven out in December 2008, and as a result, young police recruits have set up permanent posts in the neighborhood. It’s part of a new community-policing program, which will be implemented in other areas if successful.

Click Here for more photos by Douglas Engle

In 1982, Rio de Janeiro had a lower crime rate than New York City. This was also the year that the Calabrian Mafia began using a South American smuggling route affectionately known as the Cocaine Corridor. Throughout the next decade, much of the powder going up American and European noses came over the Andes and through the Amazon jungle before passing through Rio, home to the busiest port in Brazil. The export business flourished, but something unforeseen happened—the city’s large middle-class fell in love with the drug they were helping to push to the rest of the world.

If you’ve been following the media’s coverage of the favelas throughout the years, you probably already know how militias and gangs gained so much power. For the rest of you, here’s a brief history lesson. The booming local snoot market gave rise to three drug-trafficking gangs: the Red Command, the Third Command, and the Friends of the Friends, a group that is rumored to consist of former military-police officers. The traffickers rapidly took over Brazil’s mountainside slums—known as favelas—and started to make lots of money and kill lots of people. Of course, the cops followed, and corruption began to rot everyone’s soul. Soon the police formed illegal militias to fight the narcotics gangs and extort money from the favelas they were “protecting.”

“The militias really started when local store owners began to pay some police officers to kick homeless people off the sidewalks,” said a schoolteacher who refused to give her name. “They’re really just off-duty police and some firemen, but they create a parallel power. It’s very difficult for us to talk about it because when you do that you become a target.”

Over the past 20 years, there have been more than 100,000 reported murders in Rio. According to a 2008 United Nations report, police forces are responsible for almost 18 percent of all deaths within the city. This means cops have been killing nearly three people per day for the past two decades. It’s a paradox because, according to its GDP, Rio is the third-richest city in South America. But the violence isn’t happening among the wealthy. It takes place within the clusters of these homemade shanties, nearly all of which are controlled by either a drug gang or a militia. The lack of public services and persistent drug-related violence are suppressing forces in the favelas, creating a vicious cycle that makes it virtually impossible for residents to leave. No matter how pretty or cool City of God made the favelas look, a lot of the people who live in these regions are hardworking folks who would get the fuck out of there if they could.

I am an American who has lived in Brazil off and on since 1991 and currently work as an urban planner for an international NGO. I decided to write this article after signing up at a new movie-rental store in my neighborhood. They asked me to fill out two pages worth of personal info, which I thought was unusual. Right before I was about to check out my first DVDs, I saw a giant homemade Batman logo painted on the ceiling. It is the tag of a local militia called the League of Justice that has a leader nicknamed Batman. I realized that I had just handed all my personal information over to them. I decided to try and get some answers by posing as a drunk American tourist. I knew that if the wrong people caught wind of what I was really doing, there was a reasonable chance of being drawn and quartered or put in the “microwave” (a form of execution where tires filled with gasoline are piled around you and ignited).

A former coworker of mine in Rio lives in a community controlled by a militia. She refused to let me visit or use her name, believing it would be far too dangerous. So I telephoned to ask whether she’d rather live in a favela run by drug lords. “I pay my taxes, I have a right to security, and yet I still have to choose between the bandits or the militia,” she said. “The error is not which one you choose. It’s in the lack of options as a citizen in a state where the police don’t do what they are supposed to.”

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Comments

Anonymous, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote: keep up the good work boys and stop steppin on the coca!
Anonymous, on Jun 1, 2009 wrote: if i were a cop i’d wanna be one of the special forces who get to wear those berets and hold guns in the street. but fuck the police.
Anonymous, on Jun 1, 2009 wrote: why are you copying a caption from a year old don’t and putting in here? yeah, i remember that one too. one of my favorites actually. the one with the fat white couple right? fuck off.
Anonymous, on May 31, 2009 wrote: After reading this article, I almost forgot that Vice was full of shit. "What the fuck do these disgusting pieces of sugar-filled white garbage need Bluetooths for? So the TV can call them? “HEY MOM—WE R STILL IN PARKING LOT—MARKS YAWNING—CAN WE GO—NEED TO GET BACK TO CONT. SHITTY LIVES.”"--dos and don’ts Vice is a Don’t.
	tico, on May 30, 2009 wrote: Is Rio safe for US tourists if you stay out of the favelas?
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: whatever man, baltimore has a higher murder rate per capita than rio. i had a debate about this after coming back from rio involing wikipedia and all sorts off nerdiness. U!S!A! Oh yea, everyone in new york is a fucking pussy.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: another fuckin time "click here for more photos" like for real?
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: nothin spesh at least i had a sesh .................................. on the other note LMFAO at that "LEGALIZE IT" comment hahahahaahaha
	megzo925, on May 29, 2009 wrote: Brazil is like many other areas in this continent. There is a weak standard of order in the country. Too many different regimes over time. There needs to be some sort of reliable situation for the government to control. Aka lets industrialize Brazil, get some exports going, and fucking get these people into a middle class and away from drugs.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: LEGALIZE IT
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: “I pay my taxes, I have a right to security, and yet I still have to choose between the bandits or the militia,” she said. “The error is not which one you choose. It’s in the lack of options as a citizen in a state where the police don’t do what they are supposed to.” ...well said. This is the issue with developing worlds. There needs to be some legitimacy in law.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: Damn son. Loaded up. More strap on’s than my friday night getting home early and tripping over my mom’s "mahjong party"
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: When you live in a place that looks like a giant attic filled with stacked relics or a garage sale that no one will go to, your pretty much not having a good time in this world.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: Parallel powers create bipolarity and serious violent cleavage in the neighborhoods. There needs to be more money out there for these people...dont look at me im broke as fuck.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: The leader of the militia is nicknamed Batman? Was this pre-Christian Bale or post?
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: In New York last night an officer killed another off duty officer while he was chasing a man that had broken into his car. In Rio, the off duty officers are the ones breaking into cars it sounds like.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: Good reporting. I would read stuff like this over most mainstream news out there. Bring some more on. I feel like Vice has the opportunity to reach further than the hairsprayed journalist.
	megzo925, on May 29, 2009 wrote: Its pretty crazy how cocaine trade is spreading through Latin America like wildfire. Ever since the end of colombian cartels theres no way of knowing where the shit is coming from. Brazil is a beautiful place with a chance to do some great things as a country. Lula needs to fight this shit its unnecessary.
	Rook, on May 29, 2009 wrote: You really stepped up your game in the photography this issue. This and the jungle massacre articles are incredibly done.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: The house look like Legos. Slums have always amazed me. I mean, they don’t own the land do they? Probably by now they do by some kind of squatter’s rights laws, but in the beginning they just set up shop and build their slum towns?
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: they’ve started making bulletproof turbans. they need bulletproof berets. man, that just rolls off the tongue.
	Charlie Girl, on May 29, 2009 wrote: DEATH SQUADS Street Children are not unique to Brazil. Brazil stands out though because most of its Street Children expect to be killed before they are 18. Backed by citizen groups and commercial establishments, death squads have become more and more violent in their goal to "clean-up" the streets and "guarantee public safety". It is estimated by child care agencies that up to 5 or 6 children a day are assassinated on Rio’s streets, even conservative figures put the number at 2 killings every day. Children have been executed and some mutilated almost beyond recognition. 4,611 Street Children were murdered between 1988-1990. In 1993, eight children and adolescents were killed in a shooting near the Candeleria church in Rio. Between 1993-96 juvenile court statistics showed over 3 000 11 to 17 year olds met with violent deaths in Rio. The majority believed to have been murdered by death squads, the police or other types of gangs. In Sao Paulo, for example, 20% of homicides committed by the police were against minors in the first months of 1999. A recent investigation by the Rio de Janeiro State Legislature found that drug gangs now account for roughly half the child murders in Rio. The death squads have been met with little opposition from ordinary people who feel threatened by gangs of children. The police also fear the children who are becoming knowledgeable witnesses to their own criminal activities in the drug and prostitution business.
	Charlie Girl, on May 29, 2009 wrote: it’s a massive shame people don’t know more about Brazil/Rio. One horrific aspect of the corruption is the plight of the street kids. The situation is dire - with thousands of kids being murdered brutally by police Death Squads. DEATH SQUADS Street Children are not unique to Brazil. Brazil stands out though because most of its Street Children expect to be killed before they are 18. Backed by citizen groups and commercial establishments, death squads have become more and more violent in their goal to "clean-up" the streets and "guarantee public safety". It is estimated by child care agencies that up to 5 or 6 children a day are assassinated on Rio’s streets, even conservative figures put the number at 2 killings every day. Children have been executed and some mutilated almost beyond recognition. 4,611 Street Children were murdered between 1988-1990. In 1993, eight children and adolescents were killed in a shooting near the Candeleria church in Rio. Between 1993-96 juvenile court statistics showed over 3 000 11 to 17 year olds met with violent deaths in Rio. The majority believed to have been murdered by death squads, the police or other types of gangs. In Sao Paulo, for example, 20% of homicides committed by the police were against minors in the first months of 1999. A recent investigation by the Rio de Janeiro State Legislature found that drug gangs now account for roughly half the child murders in Rio. The death squads have been met with little opposition from ordinary people who feel threatened by gangs of children. The police also fear the children who are becoming knowledgeable witnesses to their own criminal activities in the drug and prostitution business.
Anonymous, on May 29, 2009 wrote: scumnation says ’’ all americans living in favelas are CIA so shoot the bastards’’
Anonymous, on May 26, 2009 wrote: the only thing i know about the slums is whatever i’ve seen in city of god. and this article of course.
	jiminy, on May 26, 2009 wrote: maybe it’s just me but flip flops do not seem like the ideal rifle soldier footwear. the army surplus people are missing out on a huge opportunity in rio. get these gunman some combat boots.
Anonymous, on May 26, 2009 wrote: from the little i know about the slums, legality has never been an issue.
Anonymous, on May 26, 2009 wrote: there is no way that “microwave” style execution is legal!! thats absolutely horrific!
	ghostfingers, on May 26, 2009 wrote: for how crappy these parts of rio are they look so fucking cool. like all the tiny alleys and passageways amaze me. not what may be lurking at the end of the alleys but the alleys themselves are pretty rad.
Anonymous, on May 26, 2009 wrote: "Corruption will certainly continue to grow unchecked until everyone’s either rich or dead." great quote! great article!
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