Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas

ABC’s Sonia Gallego, part of our recent expansion of reporters stationed around the globe, blogs: They’re objects of fascination with fierce and dangerous reputations: Ghettos caught in the shootouts between police and drug gangs, neither one relenting to the other. Neither one has so far won this seemingly never-ending battle for control. According to police in Rio, there are just over 1,200 favelas in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone with an estimated 1.2 million people living in them — but even the police admit that the number is probably greater. Cut off from the rest of society, the favelas represent a type of disenfranchisement. As a result, most of them are under the control of criminal factions and dominate the city’s drug-trafficking, be it the Red Command, the ADA or the Third Command. Other shanty towns are under the control of militia groups, a collection of former policemen and firemen who apply their law and are engaged in a fight to clear their areas of drug-traffickers. Although the favela is commonly seen as a bastion of criminality, in the middle of the chaos there are those who are striving to create a spirit of dignity within these communities. One of these groups is Afroreggae, an NGO set up to provide people, especially young kids, with an alternative to drug running and other crimes, using music, performance and art to inspire. Earlier this week, I paid a visit to one of their centers in the Cantagalo shanty town, a notorious favela under the control of the Red Command. That day, Afroreggae had some visitors in house, a group from New Delhi from the NGO ‘Breakthrough’ that works with disadvantaged people, predominantly women and children from the shanty towns in New Delhi.
It was nice day to take a little walk through the winding alleyways of Cantagalo – accompanied by Cynthia and Camilla from Afroreggae, we checked out the breathtaking views of the Marvelous City – Rio’s commonly-known nom-de-plume. Cynthia was pretty straightforward with me: “you can bring your camera but when I tell you to put it down, you’d better put it down.” Filming drug traffickers is not really the best way to make friends around here. In fact, anything to raise their suspicion is really not recommended. Certain alleyways were fine to film in but turn a corner and either Camilla or Cynthia would softly but firmly tell me “past that corner you cannot film” … “that house there cannot be filmed” and so forth. As the favela opened up to us, we continued further down the steep pathways. Arriving upon a perfect spot, an opening with a fantastic view that had the city spread out beneath our feet, the presence of a gang of teenage boys became obvious to us. All young but very assured, a second glance made it known that their hands were gripping machine guns and each of them were adorned with belts carrying grenades: members of the Red Command. Definitely no filming here. We lingered for a few seconds then continued ahead. The Breakthrough group was a little surprised, to put it mildly — Delhi’s crime rates are high enough to put people on edge, but nothing had quite prepared them for the full-on Rio onslaught. “It’s like that movie, ‘City of God!’” said Ajay who was relishing every moment of the tour. But what made me wonder on our way back was what outlooks these kids had. Life expectancy is short in these places. The trafficker lives off the rush that all too soon his or her life might be over. You make your move while you’re still alive and kicking. You carry the gun, you stand your ground, no one messes with you. In these areas, it is the law of the street that commands. No police, no armies. And no pictures, please.