Rio de Janeiro The Marvellous City That Bleeds For Change

When someone mentions the marvellous city what tends to come to mind are their breathtakingly beautiful beaches in particular the famous Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach, however pull the cover back and you’ll see a darker more blood soaked history that is normalised in Rio. To begin to understand what I’m talking about you must first understand what favelas are, they’re poor neighbourhoods dominated by crime and drugs which are essentially self governed with many police fearful to even enter them, there are around 1,000 favelas in Rio. In 2008, while in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, city authorities pledged to regain control of the favelas. Today, the police controls only 40.. (Yeah… not really on job at all!)

How are the police trying to tackle this favela drug war epidemic? Well not great.. the image above isn’t the Brazilian Police force, it’s the cutthroat brutal special military force called BOPE, or better known from their infamous crest as ‘SKULLS’. Question is why is this military force required for the ‘pacification’ process of restoring order in favelas? Two main reasons for this, firstly after the Rio Olympics large sums of money were spent on rebuilding and protection in tourist heavy areas, however as a result of this unbalanced spending, favelas have essentially been forgotten and police forces and fire-fighters have taken huge pay cuts to the point where they are having to beg for donations of pens. Secondly Brazil is a huge country, and those living in favelas are around 11.25 million! Assuming 10 percent of those living in favelas are involved in the drug gang’s that’s around 1.125 million members of drug trafficker gangsters. Perhaps due to these factors the police force doesn’t suffice as they’re undermanned underpaid and demoralised, to the point where some corrupt police officers sell military grade weapons to favela gang factions as well as granting immunity to some of the big factions like the infamous ‘RED COMMAND’ by taking pay offs to leave their territories alone. The corruption runs deep with Brazillian politician and former governor Sergio Cabral who was found guilty of corruption and money laundering and as of 2017 was sentenced to 14 years in jail. However the Brazilian BOPE military force seems to be disliked in the media and the favela citizens, the media branded the BOPE as the ‘Death Squad’ they’ve been widely criticized for many things from their brutality to their shoot first ask later policy to even their crest being a skull with two knives, leading to their other slogan, victory over death. 

But not all that comes from the favelas is negative, to give you another brief history lesson, the favelas were erected by the poorest inhabitants of Rio illegally as they weren’t able to afford to live in ‘conventional’ housing in the richer areas. It’s safe to say these homes were essentially made by their friends, cousins and family. To quote the greatest rapper of our time (Don’t @ me) J cole says “There’s beauty in the struggle and ugliness in the success” this is telling here, despite the racism rooted in Brazil with a large chunk of the black community residing in favelas and white population the the richer areas like Ipanema, the rich culture of the favelas is unrivalled. Rio is generally considered a vibrant hotspot for music, culture and its festivals but no place is like the favelas, when I went in a favela it was like stepping into another world, not in a bad way in an amazing way. Music blaring extra loud, peopling drinking beer on their door steps and outside local corner shops, kids practicing capoeira ( A really wavey Brazilian martial art, basically kung fu mixed with dance its cold mandem you have to peep it) it had its own distinct culture, the community was much more tight knit they needed each other and were happy despite not having as much.

Touching on that note during my own time in Brazil Rio, I was able to speak with a former favela resident and stayed in contact, I spoke with Almeida as they wanted to be referred as (fearful of using full name which is quite telling of the state of the country and corruption) and asked them the problems in Rio. They replied “I Think traffickers having so much power and getting kids working for them is a big problem and corruption in political parties too.” When I asked for a possible solution they replied “It’s complicated we should change all things here like political parties, school and social programs and education can be helpful.” Having witnessed the beauty and culture Rio has to offer I can only hope the violence comes to a stop, having said that if you’ve made it this far you’re a real G, if you’re interested in learning more about Rio and its culture heres a few things you can check out

City Of God the movie and Elite Squad the movie (Almedia said both of these movies were fairly accurate portrayals of life in rio and favelas.)

And here’s a cool blog by a guy called Miguel who actually lived in a favela for a brief period of time https://www.travelsauro.com/living-favela-brazil/

I’ll be back terminator style with something new sometime soon, maybe about Boxing maybe about Ufc Maybe about Brexit (yeah its long). Anything and Everything right, Peace.