There's been plenty in the news lately about the recent spate of violence in Rio's favelas, in which a police helicopter was brought down by gunfire and several buses were set alight. The law enforcement authorities in Rio certainly have their work cut out if they wish to project the image of a safe city in time for the 2016 Olympics, which the city recently won.
Trawling through the deluge of articles in the mainstream media in the aftermath of the October flare-up, there are a couple which stand out, offering a deeper insight into the complex issue of drug crime in the city's slums.
The first is this excellent article by Tom Phillips in the Guardian. His documentary, Dancing with the Devil, will be shown on UK TV this week (More 4, Tuesday 10th November, 10pm) and should be well worth viewing if you have access to it.
In the article, Phillips describes his experiences riding with the drug gangs as well as with a local preacher who is doing his best to turn the young men away from violence. (Note: any reporters thinking of heading into the favelas to do a spot of investigative reporting should ensure they have arranged their visit beforehand with the right people, as this guy found out)
Secondly, is this item in The Economist (free 14 day registration may be required, though the link worked fine without it at the time of writing). The Economist doesn't bother pontificating on the moral issues surrounding drug-dealing and violence in the slums, but instead zeroes in on - as you might expect - the economics of the situation. Rio's drug trade (the majority of which is in cocaine) is controlled by 3 competing factions, unlike many cities where one group exercises overall market dominance. The result, the article argues, citing a recent study, is that the gangs are operating at close to break-even, when wages and equipment (guns and body armour) have been accounted for:
"Using a conservative estimate for total annual drugs sales in the city, of R$316m ($182m), the study reckons that after buying the product from wholesalers, employing a sales force and investing in capital (guns, mainly), Rio’s dealers make combined annual profits of R$27m ($15m)"
In this context, the fierce violence that occurs as the gangs battle it out for supremacy can be explained succinctly; the gangs are fighting for control of a market which could be a lot more lucrative if some of the competition could be eliminated. Throw Rio's notoriously well-armed and heavy-handed military police into the equation and you have a recipe for bloodshed on all sides.
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