Speaker 1: Causer Media.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Away Days podcast on the ground outside,
Speaker 2: reporting from the underbelly with me Jake Hanrahan. To watch
Speaker 2: Awaydays documentaries, go to YouTube dot com slash at away
Speaker 2: Days TV. This is part two for Velo Government, Episode one.
Speaker 2: The podcast is the production of H eleventh Studio and
Speaker 2: call Zone Media. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I'm stood at
Speaker 2: the bottom of a long winding road that leads uphill
Speaker 2: into the maze of Flete Fogutero, A sprawling fora Vella
Speaker 2: under the control of Brazil's oldest gang. In the near distance,
Speaker 2: I can see the shanty town built up on top
Speaker 2: of itself. The tropical backdrop of the nearby mountains and
Speaker 2: valleys is peppered with misshapen blocks of di white housing.
Speaker 2: Edges and right angles are ben skewed with like a
Speaker 2: Doctor Zoos illustration. Each building is linked by a spider's
Speaker 2: web of illegal power lines, all maintained by Favela residents
Speaker 2: without permits. Here at the bottom of the hill there's
Speaker 2: a crossroads where Foravella motorbike taxis hang out. There are
Speaker 2: around two dozen young lads ready to take who or
Speaker 2: whatever they're told to up into the forvela. They wear
Speaker 2: a mix of football shirts, flip flops, and basketball shorts.
Speaker 2: They're looking at me as if to say, what the
Speaker 2: fuck are you doing here? This area is anrgo zone
Speaker 2: for tourists, the government, and the police. The whole area
Speaker 2: is run by a criminal organization known as Red command
Speaker 2: or in Portuguese Commando for Melo CV. Of negotiation between myself,
Speaker 2: a friend and a photographer originally from the favelas. One
Speaker 2: of the big CV bosses has given us permission to
Speaker 2: enter Fogutero. Once you're up the hill and in the neighborhood,
Speaker 2: CV is the de facto leadership in every way possible.
Speaker 2: We're here to make a documentary to show what life
Speaker 2: is like in the favela when a gang takes on
Speaker 2: the role of a government. You can watch the documentary
Speaker 2: now at YouTube dot com slash at Away Days TV.
Speaker 2: A local lad is assisting us with a blessing from
Speaker 2: the gang. I dare say, if he wasn't with us,
Speaker 2: we'd be robbed and sent on our way home already.
Speaker 2: But Cev's word is solid here, so we're left alone.
Speaker 2: The local who will call Carlos hands a few notes
Speaker 2: to one of the motorbike riders and tells him something
Speaker 2: in Portuguese. The rider nods at me and pulls his
Speaker 2: bike up to the bottom of the hill. The other
Speaker 2: taxes watch on, grinning and whispering to each other. By
Speaker 2: now they're all sat on the seats of their bikes
Speaker 2: and chatting about the gringos. Me and my team humid,
Speaker 2: noisy in everything smells like gasoline. Carlos signals to me,
Speaker 2: we're ready to go. Okay. I approach the motorbike and
Speaker 2: climb on the back. The rider is perched over it
Speaker 2: and leans on the handlebars naturally, as if they're part
Speaker 2: of his extended anatomy. He's made this trip a thousand
Speaker 2: times before, but probably never for some journalists from the UK.
Speaker 2: Philip Fogatro is not one of those media friendly fora
Speaker 2: VELAs the YouTubers paid to create danger slop content inside
Speaker 2: of This is the Wild West when it comes to rules, regulations,
Speaker 2: laws or safety. Carlos tells me the last time someone
Speaker 2: tried to film up there without permission that was shot
Speaker 2: dead by the gang. He says it was a couple
Speaker 2: riding through on bikes with gold pros attached.
Speaker 1: This place is no joke.
Speaker 2: I let the rider know I'm ready, and he pushes
Speaker 2: off the kickstand and revs the bike up the hill,
Speaker 2: moving fast through a series of alleyways, winding roads, and
Speaker 2: half built streets. As we move up higher into the favela,
Speaker 2: a blur of residents and gangbangers was passed. The road
Speaker 2: is battered with potholes and uneven tarmac. The bike bounces
Speaker 2: every few feet. There were no helmets for passengers, at
Speaker 2: least not for me, so I'm held on tight, hoping
Speaker 2: we don't crash into the one hundred and one different
Speaker 2: obstacles and sharp angles with zip passed.
Speaker 1: After about five.
Speaker 2: Minutes, we're fully up the hills and on an even
Speaker 2: plateau where the favela branches off into all different directions.
Speaker 2: We're high up now, inside the Favella. I can see
Speaker 2: the city's tall buildings of the metro area and the
Speaker 2: distance from here, all glass and metal. Down there, Brazilians work,
Speaker 2: they're nine to five's, pay their bills and hang out
Speaker 2: on the beaches up here, solicit firearms, bricks of heroin,
Speaker 2: and regular gang shootouts. Short motorbike taxi has transported me
Speaker 2: from one world to another. This is the Favela. Carlos
Speaker 2: arrives on the back of another motorbike and guides us
Speaker 2: through a series of narrow alleyways. Here the only thing
Speaker 2: you need to start building is cement. Over the years,
Speaker 2: this has created a ghetto metropolis with random drainpipes, satellite
Speaker 2: dishes and stairs that lead to nowhere. Pavela construction is
Speaker 2: unlike anything else. We moved through to a small corner
Speaker 2: with three alleyways leading in all directions up a slope.
Speaker 2: Cev graffiti is sprayed red on the walls. Piles of
Speaker 2: rubbish are gathered up along the side of the road.
Speaker 2: There's a small benched off area made of bricks and concrete. Here,
Speaker 2: three young men and with semi automatic rifles are posted up,
Speaker 2: chatting into their walky talkies. The static melts in and out,
Speaker 2: with inderside of Portuguese chirping from the other end.
Speaker 1: The gang has this whole place on lock.
Speaker 2: An intricate system of radio signals and constant patrols has
Speaker 2: them in charge of all entrances to the neighborhoods they control.
Speaker 2: The young gunmen seem pretty chilled out considering we shake hands,
Speaker 2: and one of them seems eager to chat. His name
Speaker 2: is Chico. He's maybe twenty years old. He stood in
Speaker 2: a pair of flip flops, a red basketball jersey, and
Speaker 2: a camouflage balaclava. He's also holding a rifle almost as
Speaker 2: big as he is. Carlos explains to me that exactly
Speaker 2: where we're currently standing is nicknamed the Place where Bullets Fly.
Speaker 2: He could have told us this beforehand. Basically, this is
Speaker 2: a very hot intersection where gun battles regularly break out
Speaker 2: between either rival gangs or the police. Chico walks out
Speaker 2: into the junction and points to a large white building
Speaker 2: at the top of a hill in the distance, a
Speaker 2: huge blue wall protec exit. It's surrounded by jungle foliage
Speaker 2: on what looks like a little tram moving.
Speaker 1: In and out. Chico explains what it is.
Speaker 3: There is light snipers up there, there are police snipers,
Speaker 3: and from this direction ravel gangs come down to confront us.
Speaker 2: At all times, day or night. These areas are guarded
Speaker 2: by men like Chico. We move off through the alleyways
Speaker 2: to find a safer place to talk. As we do,
Speaker 2: young children randomly show up to see why the gringlows
Speaker 2: are here. They seem completely unfazed at the masked men
Speaker 2: with rifles hanging out on their corners. We climb over
Speaker 2: a small wall and into a sheltered alleyway that doubles
Speaker 2: as someone's outside patio. People look out from their windows,
Speaker 2: not really alarmed, just seeing what's going on. Chico seems
Speaker 2: as relaxed here as he did in the place where
Speaker 2: bullets fly.
Speaker 4: Me.
Speaker 2: I'm much happier to have some concrete between us and
Speaker 2: the police snipers with their barrels aimed over this neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Do you see yourselves as like the security of this
Speaker 2: fabella fun?
Speaker 3: Just yeah, I think so. We're here to protect each other.
Speaker 3: We stop residents getting scammed by the government. If we're
Speaker 3: not in the community, the community is finished. We're out here.
Speaker 3: It's our choice. We stay strong.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Drug dealers are the ones who help because the government
Speaker 3: is shit, straight up. They steal everything. They're bad. We're
Speaker 3: not good, but we only kill our enemies. The media
Speaker 3: says we kill civilians, but we don't. We only kill
Speaker 3: other criminals, criminals against criminals. CV isn't destroying anything in
Speaker 3: Rio dejan Ero. If CV didn't exist, what would happen
Speaker 3: to the favela residence? The police would come here, charge
Speaker 3: protection fees, humiliate people, disappear, people make curfews, not us.
Speaker 1: We leave them be.
Speaker 3: We even hold parties for the community.
Speaker 2: What's it like living here? What's it like growing up here?
Speaker 2: It looks to me like there's no presence from the
Speaker 2: government at all.
Speaker 1: What's it What's it like?
Speaker 3: When I was young, all I did was play football.
Speaker 3: I followed a different path. But when the police entered
Speaker 3: the community here, a lot of things went to ruin.
Speaker 3: My brother entered the gang life, so I followed back.
Speaker 3: Then I had a dream to get out of this place,
Speaker 3: but the police destroyed my life when they killed my brother.
Speaker 3: He was shot in the back. Then the cops executed
Speaker 3: him close up. From then on, I said to myself,
Speaker 3: they'll only get rid of me by death. So after
Speaker 3: that they fought and fought.
Speaker 4: Fuck.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry the ever, none of this will change our lives.
Speaker 3: Any day we could die. If God puts it in
Speaker 3: my heart to leave, then I'll leave.
Speaker 2: As nice as that sentiment is, very rarely does anyone
Speaker 2: exit the life of a favela gang member by anything
Speaker 2: other than death. CV's presence is felt far and wide
Speaker 2: across Brazil. The gang has gained over twenty five thousand
Speaker 2: members in the forty years they've been active, so symbol
Speaker 2: as nasionaes. It all began in Brazil in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 2: US backed military dictatorship controlled the country with an iron fist,
Speaker 2: extra judicial killings, force disappearances, mass censorship. Armed rebels rose
Speaker 2: up and began fighting back. Police were killed and riots
Speaker 2: broke out. Before long, Rio's prisons were full of battle
Speaker 2: hard and leftist gorillas, specifically at the Candido Mendez penal colony. There,
Speaker 2: militants shared cells with local criminals who had also been
Speaker 2: locked up by the Junter, all under the same roof
Speaker 2: all facing abuse in the prison, the two groups joined
Speaker 2: forces to protect themselves, rebel fighters in league with street criminals.
Speaker 2: It was an effective alliance that gave birth to TV.
Speaker 2: Brazil's military Junter ruled from nineteen sixty four to nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty five. In that time, CVS spread like wildfire. They
Speaker 2: were highly active inside and outside prison. They got into
Speaker 2: drug trafficking and became a highly violent organization. By the
Speaker 2: end of the dictatorship, CV controlled around seventy percent of
Speaker 2: the drug trade in Rio and became a serious problem
Speaker 2: for the state and the favelas. Though CV became the state,
Speaker 2: these shanty towns, initially built by former slaves in the
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds, have long been abandoned by the government, and
Speaker 2: so a mix of violence, intimidation, and genuine community support
Speaker 2: led CV to become the de facto authority of their favelas.
Speaker 2: This meant they had to keep the police out. In Brazil,
Speaker 2: the security forces have been corrupt for a long time.
Speaker 2: They're often involved in organized crime themselves and of the
Speaker 2: natural enemy of the countless different gangs of Brazil. Now
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, CV is a huge international criminal
Speaker 2: enterprise involved in drug trafficking, weapons dealing, armed robbery, kidnapped
Speaker 2: to order murder, for higher money laundering, you name it.
Speaker 2: Curlos takes us deeper into the Favella. We move sideways
Speaker 2: through an alleyway so narrow I think I'd almost get
Speaker 2: stuck if I walked forwards. The walls are sloped at
Speaker 2: different angles. The further we move along, CEV graffiti is
Speaker 2: sprayed up every six feet or so. Eventually we emerge
Speaker 2: another intersection where a dozen or so CV gang members
Speaker 2: are gathered on a corner. They're all armed with a
Speaker 2: mix of long barrel rifles, oozies and pistols. They move
Speaker 2: in and out of the area on motorbikes, a lot
Speaker 2: nicer than the ones we rolled up in with the taxi.
Speaker 2: Due to the layout of the favela and CV's control
Speaker 2: of it, the gang is able to do business completely
Speaker 2: out in the open. They're all cutting up weed into
Speaker 2: small clingfilm squares and combining blocks of what I think
Speaker 2: is wrapped coke into with duct tape. The boss of
Speaker 2: this group, a guy nicknamed No Joke Fat Sexy, is
Speaker 2: watching over the operation with an M sixteen rifle slinked
Speaker 2: over his shoulder. He's on his phone organizing. Music is
Speaker 2: playing from a blue to the speaker, and the gang
Speaker 2: members are pouring out drinks for each other. It's just
Speaker 2: business as usual. About ten feet across the road from
Speaker 2: the open air drug emporium is a small local butchers.
Speaker 2: A few residents are queued up waiting to buy meat.
Speaker 2: Children move in and out of the area. My head
Speaker 2: over to the gang and Carlos introduces me to everyone.
Speaker 2: I shake hands with the gunmen and drug manufacturers, and
Speaker 2: whilst they seem a little confused, they're generally pretty friendly.
Speaker 2: They seem baffled as to why we'd come all the
Speaker 2: way from England to philat Fogato, even when we explained
Speaker 2: that we're making a documentary. We hang out for a
Speaker 2: while and the gang bangers start to show off their guns.
Speaker 2: These are heavy duty firearms, either stolen from rival gang
Speaker 2: and police, or smuggled into Brazil from the US, Paraguay
Speaker 2: and Venezuela. Randomly, one of the gang members puts an
Speaker 2: M sixteen rifle in my hands. Whilst generally I believe
Speaker 2: in gun rights and I'm definitely pro firearm, I am
Speaker 2: not comfortable holding a gun whilst out in the field
Speaker 2: reporting if that's not my role. I'm a journalist and
Speaker 2: never a combatant. I look around for someone to hand
Speaker 2: the firearm off to, as the CV gang members laugh
Speaker 2: at my awkwardness. So if I'm not sell a spot
Speaker 2: where they're all selling various drugs for some reason, I've
Speaker 2: just been handing this rifle and I don't really know what
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 4: Now you on this, someone take it man.
Speaker 1: Quickly.
Speaker 2: One of the guys takes the gun away from me
Speaker 2: and I thank him. He hands me a little plastic
Speaker 2: cup and pours me a drink. Of sprite at his feet.
Speaker 2: He has a bag of drugs the size of a pillow,
Speaker 2: all wrapped in tape and plastic. If I had to guess,
Speaker 2: I'd say it's some kind of heroine precursor or just
Speaker 2: a huge sack of opium. Even I into semi autonomous cells,
Speaker 2: CEV is active in drug trafficking all over the place,
Speaker 2: from here in Rio to the Paraguay border, the Amazon
Speaker 2: region and beyond. They're constantly fighting rival gangs for control
Speaker 2: of the drug trade. As we sit around drinking sprite
Speaker 2: watching gang members compare guns, I noticed two young boys
Speaker 2: across the street. They're both leaned up against the wall,
Speaker 2: intently watching the scene in front of them. Drugs, guns,
Speaker 2: gang life. They look not even ten years old. Yet,
Speaker 2: before I can think about it too much, the sound
Speaker 2: of a gunshot and in the distance breaks the good
Speaker 2: of your atmosphere. Then another and another. There's some kind
Speaker 2: of shoot out. The ringleader, Fat Sexy quickly jumps on
Speaker 2: his motorbike and zooms off down the road with a
Speaker 2: walkie talkie. The others wrap up the drugs and the
Speaker 2: jeep arrives out of nowhere. Fat Sexy returns and starts
Speaker 2: telling the others to go get the rifles.
Speaker 1: Three or four of the CV footsole just.
Speaker 2: Hop on bikes and race off, presumably to get the
Speaker 2: other rifles. The scene is tense and erratic, but at
Speaker 2: the same time somehow controlled. It's clear that the gang
Speaker 2: members deal with this regularly and know what to do.
Speaker 2: For the past year, CV has been moving on the
Speaker 2: turf of their rivals. Gun battles breakout, often just as
Speaker 2: I'm sat on the wall observing the madness, wondering if
Speaker 2: we'll have to run for cover soon. A CV foot
Speaker 2: soldier in a balaklava moves next to me and loads
Speaker 2: up his klashnikov with a DIY extended magazine, two mags
Speaker 2: welded together at each end. If it doesn't jam, he
Speaker 2: can probably shoot sixty rounds without having to be low.
Speaker 2: He gestures for me to follow him, ushering us away
Speaker 2: from what looks to be a mobilization of CV versus
Speaker 2: whoever it is shooting nearby. They don't want us getting
Speaker 2: in the way of a gang's shootout. Rio de Janeiro
Speaker 2: is gripped by a violent stre between many different gangs,
Speaker 2: each of them fights for control of drug routes and
Speaker 2: territory in the city's sprawling for VELAs. In Rio, CV
Speaker 2: is the most notorious and most powerful. The gang controls
Speaker 2: the majority of the drug trade here. Recently, a serious
Speaker 2: conflict broke out between them and another gang called First
Speaker 2: Capital Command or PCC. PCC's main turf is the city
Speaker 2: of sal Paolo, over two hundred miles away from Rio,
Speaker 2: much like CV, though they're active all over the country.
Speaker 2: CV and PCC had a truce recently, but it's fallen
Speaker 2: apart spectacularly.
Speaker 1: In a storm of deadly violence.
Speaker 2: Another major criminal faction in Brazil is Pure Third Command
Speaker 2: or TCP. Relatively, they're a lot newer than CV, forming
Speaker 2: in the early two thousands after splitting from a previous
Speaker 2: a larger criminal group over various disagreements. TCP is a
Speaker 2: whole other story in itself. They've fused brutal gang violence
Speaker 2: with extreme religious Pentecostalism, perhaps and away.
Speaker 1: Days for another time.
Speaker 2: Another serious gang in the Rio area is Friends of
Speaker 2: Friends or Amigos dos Amigos ADA. These guys formed in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, coming together as defectors of CV. They
Speaker 2: split off and formed their own gang. ADA has carved
Speaker 2: out its own territory in parts of the North and
Speaker 2: West zones of Rio, including Rockina, one of Rio's most
Speaker 2: famous favelas. Ada is enemies with both CV and TCP.
Speaker 2: The three gangs are all sporadically at war with each other.
Speaker 2: Complicating this situation even further are the criminal militias. They're
Speaker 2: different to the gangs in that they're paramilitary groups made
Speaker 2: up of ex police soldiers and even firefighters. Talk about
Speaker 2: them a lot more later on. The CV gang member
Speaker 2: with the two worlded together magazines, quickly brings us up
Speaker 2: a hill out the way of where the gunshots were
Speaker 2: ringing out. He tells us he goes by the name
Speaker 2: f T.
Speaker 1: Simple.
Speaker 2: We passed through a small neighborhood where four young girls
Speaker 2: are hanging out, sat on a step as if nothing
Speaker 2: has happened. They're all dressed in different pink outfits and
Speaker 2: probably range in age from seven to about ten. They're
Speaker 2: incredibly cute. As we moved past them, they seem totally
Speaker 2: oblivious to F. T, who is casually walking by, holding
Speaker 2: his rifle and wearing a dark balaklava.
Speaker 1: It's midday.
Speaker 2: The wave at the young girls and they wave back
Speaker 2: and begin to giggle. He They remind me of some
Speaker 2: of my own family back home. They're all smiles. The
Speaker 2: sadness of this, of course, is that they're completely used
Speaker 2: to gun battles and gang members. There's no way they
Speaker 2: didn't hear the commotion down the road. But for them,
Speaker 2: I guess it's just another day. As with the rest
Speaker 2: of the poverty and the favella, the children here are
Speaker 2: hit hard due to decades that inequality, neglect from the government,
Speaker 2: and constant violence. The situation has become an ongoing crisis.
Speaker 2: Amongst the children here, there's malnutrition, poor sanitation, and limited
Speaker 2: access to health care and education. Schooling in the favelas
Speaker 2: is very sporadic, to say the least. They have barely
Speaker 2: any money and very high dropout rates. Some kids are
Speaker 2: pulled into gang activity simply to survive. Gangs offer money, food,
Speaker 2: and a sense of belonging. Others are sadly victim teams
Speaker 2: of violent police raids or crossfire when gang battles break
Speaker 2: out like.
Speaker 4: We just saw.
Speaker 2: Much more basic services like clean water, rubbish collection, and
Speaker 2: even electricity are often inconsistent. This instability has severe impact
Speaker 2: on mental health and development. Those most ill equipped to
Speaker 2: deal with such hardships are, of course, the children wow
Speaker 2: CV two FT leads us to a high point where
Speaker 2: there's an open square, two concrete benches, and a concrete
Speaker 2: table that has a chessboard crudely built into it. This
Speaker 2: area offers an incredible view of the sprawling favelas all
Speaker 2: around us. As far as the eye can see, there
Speaker 2: are makeshift buildings that are meant to last forever. The
Speaker 2: shanty towns cover every hill and valley for miles and
Speaker 2: miles around. It hits me, this is what the gangs
Speaker 2: are fighting for, control of a never ending concrete fortress.
Speaker 2: FT watches over it like a proud homeowner. Whilst it
Speaker 2: might seem ridiculous to some if you go up here
Speaker 2: and you're in a gang, controlling your turf is everything.
Speaker 2: Dozens and dozens of these young gang members are killed
Speaker 2: every month trying to maintain their monopoly. To do so,
Speaker 2: it gives you the spoiled fruits the domination of the
Speaker 2: favella has to offer, like some kind of favella. Real
Speaker 2: estate agent FT proudly describes the demographic of the area.
Speaker 4: Here is the same gangs over there. Here we are
Speaker 4: CV over there is the same faction, but another favella.
Speaker 4: Over there, they have a different boast to us. It's divided.
Speaker 4: Here is for the tales, where we are over there
Speaker 4: is moro dos prazers. I'm down. There is the border
Speaker 4: once to he divides the two favelas. Yes, this is
Speaker 4: for it.
Speaker 2: What's it like living here and growing up all in
Speaker 2: this favella? Do you ever get to leave? Or you're
Speaker 2: just here all the time?
Speaker 4: Man? I stay in the fabella a lot. I moved
Speaker 4: here very young. Those of us raised here have few
Speaker 4: opportunities in life. That's why I started doing all this.
Speaker 4: It's normal for us seeing all this since a young
Speaker 4: age in the foravela. Even if I'm not on lookout
Speaker 4: or not working, I'm always with my friends twenty four
Speaker 4: seven on hours foot. We're always waiting for the unexpected
Speaker 4: to happen. We're always ready, always waiting for it. That's
Speaker 4: our life day today.
Speaker 2: If you didn't have to be here doing this, what
Speaker 2: would you prefer to do?
Speaker 4: Oh, I'd be a musician. A musician I tried in
Speaker 4: a different moment in my life. I dedicated myself to it.
Speaker 4: I have crime for a while to apply myself. I
Speaker 4: didn't get far. Maybe I was impatient enough. In the end,
Speaker 4: I came back ended up here.
Speaker 2: As Ft explains his lost dreams of becoming a musician,
Speaker 2: I can see a deep sadness in his eyes, albeit
Speaker 2: through the slit of his balaklava. He is in his
Speaker 2: twenties and has been a member of CV for a
Speaker 2: long time. Unfortunately, FT is no doubt a killer, and
Speaker 2: I'm not excusing random acts of gang violence. But for
Speaker 2: a moment you can almost see an innocent side of FT,
Speaker 2: deep down in his soul when he talks about his
Speaker 2: forgotten ambitions. Just like anyone else, he once had dreams
Speaker 2: and desires far bigger than the life he's living now.
Speaker 2: And to make it out of the favella as a
Speaker 2: famous musician is in no way a pipe dream in
Speaker 2: Brazil either, many have done so. Brazil has produced a
Speaker 2: wave of talented rappers who came up amongst the brutality
Speaker 2: of the favelas. One of the most famous is Sabotage,
Speaker 2: a sau Paolo born rapper who grew up in the
Speaker 2: harsh gang communities of Zona Saul. His songs talk about
Speaker 2: favella life and soul inequality. Sadly, he was murdered in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three. Another major name is Emesida, who
Speaker 2: also grew up on the fringes of suth Paolo. He's
Speaker 2: built is on record label and gained international recognition performing
Speaker 2: in Europe and the US. His music tackles racism, poverty,
Speaker 2: and Brazil's huge class divide. There are many other examples.
Speaker 2: It's definitely possible to get out of the favella using
Speaker 2: music as the vessel. It is, though incredibly unlikely and
Speaker 2: very hard.
Speaker 1: For Ft, though he.
Speaker 2: Didn't quite make it, He's now stock as a drug
Speaker 2: dealer in the trenches of Pallape Fogetero. There's no doubt
Speaker 2: a lot of lost talent in Brazil's favelas. Eventually we
Speaker 2: say our goodbye is to Ft and wander off through
Speaker 2: the favela. One thing that strikes me is the huge
Speaker 2: number of children running around, playing and having fun. The
Speaker 2: contrast is impossible not to notice. For every CV gang
Speaker 2: member posted up with a rifle, there seems to be
Speaker 2: a dozen or so children running past him on the
Speaker 2: way to play out with their friends. There's something beautiful
Speaker 2: about the innocence of the children growing up amidst the
Speaker 2: chaos or Phalape Fogetero. No doubt more than a few
Speaker 2: times they've been kept up at night to the sound
Speaker 2: of gunfire. Flashes here can last for hours, with back
Speaker 2: and forth shootings between CV and police or rival gangs.
Speaker 2: But it's not that it might be military helicopters overhead
Speaker 2: gathering intel for an upcoming raid. There's even been explosive
Speaker 2: used in favela battles. This is in no way a
Speaker 2: safe environment for a child, but it's their reality. The
Speaker 2: government does almost nothing to provide for the families here.
Speaker 2: Most of the safeguard in if any is done by
Speaker 2: NGOs are allowed in by the gangs. It's a serious problem.
Speaker 2: There is, however, another outlet for the children of Phalat
Speaker 2: Foggatar hero One that was actually built by the gangs
Speaker 2: and is run by a man whose own father was.
Speaker 1: Killed by them.
Speaker 2: Next week we'll hear about Boa Saffra Team Jim, a
Speaker 2: place worth its weight in gold. You've been listening to
Speaker 2: the Await Days podcast. Next week it's Part two, Episode two.
Speaker 2: To watch independent Away Days documentaries, subscribe to our channel
Speaker 2: at YouTube dot com slash at Await Days TV. The
Speaker 2: Await Days podcast is a production of H eleven Studio
Speaker 2: for Cool Zone Media, reporting, producing, writing, editing and research
Speaker 2: by me Jake Hanrahan, co producing by Sophie Lichtman. Music
Speaker 2: by Sam Black and in this episode, Diamondstein sound mixed
Speaker 2: by Splicing Block. Photography by Johnny Pickup and Louis Hollis.
Speaker 2: Graphic design by Laura Adamson and Casey Highfield