Speaker 1: Causer Media.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Away Days podcast on the ground
Speaker 2: outside reporting from the underbelly with me Jake Hanrahan. To
Speaker 2: watch Awaydays documentaries, go to YouTube dot com slash at
Speaker 2: away Daze TV. This is part two for Velow Government,
Speaker 2: Episode three. This podcast is a production of H eleven
Speaker 2: Studio and call Zone Media. After talking to Player, I
Speaker 2: understand the CV outlook a little better. Unlike some of
Speaker 2: the other gangs, they at least want to be seen
Speaker 2: to be helping the people. But whilst it's true that
Speaker 2: CV generally didn't tax people back in the day, it's
Speaker 2: not like it used to be. There are now reports
Speaker 2: of the gang charge in Favela residents for everything from
Speaker 2: parking spaces to internet access, just like a conventional government.
Speaker 2: In fact, CV has the resources of the Favela lockdown
Speaker 2: so well that in some cases they've literally made their
Speaker 2: own internet service providers. In this article from twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: journalist Graham Slattery details how armed gangs even chased out
Speaker 2: repair men who've been sent to a terminal to fix
Speaker 2: what showed as a disruption in service that it definitely
Speaker 2: was quote as real. Dejenira residents sheltered at home last year,
Speaker 2: during the deadliest phase of Brazil's COVID nineteen outbreak, Police
Speaker 2: detective Gabriel Ferrando said he got a tip that something
Speaker 2: suspicious was upending local internet service. Access had vanished across
Speaker 2: broad swaths of Moral for Meiga or the Anhill, a
Speaker 2: tough neighborhood on the city's north side. When Ferrando quized
Speaker 2: the technician from a broadband provider tasked with fixing the outage,
Speaker 2: the worker, who he declined to name, said armed men
Speaker 2: had chased him away with a warning not to return.
Speaker 2: Turns out a new internet provider had claimed this turf,
Speaker 2: a company whose investors at one time included an accused
Speaker 2: drug and arms trafficker with ties to Brazil's notorious Red
Speaker 2: Command crime syndicate. Using stolen property, some of it pilford
Speaker 2: from the internet provider tim The newcomers soon had their
Speaker 2: own internet service up and running. Residents could sign up
Speaker 2: with the new firm or do without end quote until
Speaker 2: wasn't the only place affected either. The journalist interviewed almost
Speaker 2: two dozen telecoms executives, law enforcement officials, and Internet users
Speaker 2: in Brazil. They also reviewed thousands of pages court documents
Speaker 2: submitted by the police. What they found was quote an
Speaker 2: audacious takeover of internet service in dozens of neighborhoods in
Speaker 2: Brazil's major cities by companies associated with alleged criminals, unafraid
Speaker 2: to use force and intimidation to push out rivals. The
Speaker 2: result is that tens of thousands of Brazilians now depend
Speaker 2: on unreliable second rate broadband networks, estimated by industry and
Speaker 2: law enforcement officials to be generating millions of dollars annually
Speaker 2: for purported crooks. End quote. So all the webbing of
Speaker 2: telegraph wires above our heads in the favela is part
Speaker 2: of CV's telecoms empire. The many different sized antennas and
Speaker 2: satellite dishes I've seen jerry rigged onto the top of
Speaker 2: roofs and the sides of Foravella housing provides residents internet
Speaker 2: and television. Let's call it CV and T. It's the
Speaker 2: most popular provider in the whole of the favela. Because
Speaker 2: CV and T is the only provider in the whole
Speaker 2: of the favela. If you want to serve the Web,
Speaker 2: you'll be doing it with gang made internet technology, real
Speaker 2: Favela innovation. In this case, it's a way to make
Speaker 2: more money from the citizens of the favela. You could argue,
Speaker 2: so what why should the local gang not make some
Speaker 2: extra money from an internet provider. Well, I think the
Speaker 2: issue is that the residents have no other choice. You
Speaker 2: CV and T or don't have internet. Tadly a free
Speaker 2: market if the other competitors are chased away with literal
Speaker 2: machine guns. In plot Foggatto, we seem to have gained
Speaker 2: some kind of trust. The gang members are surprised we
Speaker 2: keep coming back each day, and are definitely more comfortable
Speaker 2: with us around than they were at the start. A
Speaker 2: few have even waived or nodded at us as we
Speaker 2: moved past them at various checkpoints. We move further up
Speaker 2: the hills into the shakier heights of the favelas. See
Speaker 2: As you move higher into the hills of a Brazilian favela,
Speaker 2: the physical, social, and infrastructural landscape changes dramatically. Favelas are
Speaker 2: often built on steep land that the formal city avoids.
Speaker 2: The glass and metal sky rises of the city are
Speaker 2: certainly not built on hillsides, ravines, and floodplains. The lower
Speaker 2: levels of the favela tend to be more accessible and
Speaker 2: as a result have better access to what limited public
Speaker 2: infrastructure there is. Over time, these services might extend upwards,
Speaker 2: but not always. Housing near the base of the favela
Speaker 2: is usually denser and more established, built from brick, concrete, or,
Speaker 2: as we've seen, brittle breeze blocks. These homes are often
Speaker 2: two or more stories, sometimes with small shops or makeshift
Speaker 2: businesses on the ground level. As I travel further up
Speaker 2: into the favela, it's clear that construction becomes a lot
Speaker 2: more improvised. Buildings on the upper slopes are usually smaller,
Speaker 2: built from cheaper materials like wood or sheet metal, and
Speaker 2: many lack proper foundations. The angles of some of these
Speaker 2: dwellings look as if they're filmed on a fish Eyelans.
Speaker 2: Outer walls are sometimes bowing with weight, and there are
Speaker 2: huge water butts hanging off the edges of many homes here,
Speaker 2: probably their only chance to get decent water. The jungle
Speaker 2: landscape becomes more dense also, and so the area is
Speaker 2: susceptible to landslides, particularly during rainy season. These upper zones
Speaker 2: are at greater environmental risk and often house the poorest families.
Speaker 2: One of the main issues here believe it or not
Speaker 2: is global warming. Amongst all of the guns and the
Speaker 2: drugs and the violence, even pollution is getting the people here.
Speaker 2: The community reporting platform rio on watch has covered this
Speaker 2: problem extensively. In an article by Karla Regina, she wrote, quote,
Speaker 2: these phenomena leave some displaced and homeless, forced to live
Speaker 2: in public shelters or with relatives. Local governments in Brazil
Speaker 2: generally register them for social rent if they are unable
Speaker 2: to access public housing programs such as Minhat Casamina Vida,
Speaker 2: but not everyone affected is covered by these programs, and
Speaker 2: even when they are, many report the payments received are
Speaker 2: lower than the rents charged in the favelas. Thus, many
Speaker 2: favela residents choose to return to their former addresses to
Speaker 2: rebuild their homes. Others join the homeless movement, occupying vacant
Speaker 2: lots or abandoned public and private buildings that are not
Speaker 2: fulfilling the social function of property as outlined in the
Speaker 2: Brazilian Constitution. The complete absence of public services in higher
Speaker 2: perwer of the favelas is alarming. Ravines are giving way,
Speaker 2: gradually eroding with each bolt of rain. With a few
Speaker 2: more storms, which are common in Rio, it's likely these
Speaker 2: will collapse, wiping away everything and everyone in their way.
Speaker 2: Tall trees grow on unstable soil and without proper care
Speaker 2: from the authorities. There are also a cause of concern
Speaker 2: amongst residents the close to falling onto their houses. It's
Speaker 2: a tragedy waiting to happen. One of the Favella houses
Speaker 2: I visited in twenty nineteen used to be occupied by
Speaker 2: a woman and her pregnant daughter. Back then, it was
Speaker 2: already in precarious conditions and did not have electricity. The
Speaker 2: woman and her daughter cooked outside in their backyard on
Speaker 2: a makeshift brick stove using charcoal and a refrigerator grill.
Speaker 2: When I spoke to the pregnant daughter in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: she said she felt no danger living there. She was
Speaker 2: already used to it, and while almost everything got wet
Speaker 2: when it rained, she could sleep wherever the rain hadn't fallen.
Speaker 2: Today the house is even more run down end quote.
Speaker 2: In the time we've been here in the Favella, it
Speaker 2: rained heavily several times. Each roof drips water constantly, and
Speaker 2: the stream of the brill and uncollected rubbish pushes filth
Speaker 2: and probably diseased down Some parts of the open hills.
Speaker 2: One of the few benefits of living higher up in
Speaker 2: the Favella's dough are the views, if you can call
Speaker 2: that a benefit in such poverty. We turn a corner
Speaker 2: after five minutes, stomping up an almost vertical hill, and
Speaker 2: agreeted with the natural beauty of the jungle in front
Speaker 2: of us, lush leaves, thick branches, and green for miles
Speaker 2: just around the corner. Though on the other side of
Speaker 2: this strip, the view is the opposite. You can see
Speaker 2: all the main roads into the Flavella from here, and
Speaker 2: the normality of the city out in the distance. Suddenly
Speaker 2: I hear the crackle of a radio. Behind us, there's
Speaker 2: a young lad, dressed and a black t shirt with
Speaker 2: a black cat and blue denim shorts, sat with a
Speaker 2: few guns at a higher vantage point. He's a lookout,
Speaker 2: watching here all day and informing his higher ups of
Speaker 2: any suspicious activity. His plastic chair is placed within a
Speaker 2: few feet of the front door of a makeshift house.
Speaker 2: It's decorated out front with a mix of different brightly
Speaker 2: colored flowers. There's even a little tor toys moving slowly
Speaker 2: through the garden. A marvel at the tortoise as the
Speaker 2: lookout moves around, putting his pistol into the band of
Speaker 2: his trousers and nodding at us vaguely. He doesn't want
Speaker 2: to talk, as he's busy working, beats friendly, and he
Speaker 2: seems chilled out with us around. I reckon he's about
Speaker 2: sixteen years old. In this area, despite the young gunman
Speaker 2: keeping watch of everything, there is a lot less going
Speaker 2: on and it does feel more peaceful socially. There's also
Speaker 2: a subtle status hierarchy in some favelas, depending on how
Speaker 2: high up you are. While in most city ties the
Speaker 2: higher ground means wealth, in favelas the opposite is often true.
Speaker 2: As I've said, residents at the bottom tend to have
Speaker 2: better economic opportunities given their proximity to transport, employment, and services.
Speaker 2: Those living at the top are usually more isolated and
Speaker 2: have to navigate these long, steep hills. It's not uncommon
Speaker 2: for people to have to carry water, fuel, or even
Speaker 2: construction materials by hand up the hillside. Community investment and
Speaker 2: urban upgrading projects typically begin in lower or mid level zones,
Speaker 2: where access is easier and the property is more stable.
Speaker 2: Higher up areas tend to be last in line for
Speaker 2: improvements like lighting, pavements and public spaces. Ultimately, the higher
Speaker 2: you go in a favela, the more precarious life can
Speaker 2: be structurally, environmentally, and economically. I want to go even
Speaker 2: further up to see what life is like there. Carlos
Speaker 2: isn't sure. He makes a few calls. After a few minutes,
Speaker 2: he gets a message. Basically, we have permission, but at
Speaker 2: our own risk. The motorbike taxis will come to take
Speaker 2: us further, but one of the gang members has to
Speaker 2: radio each checkpoint first to let the gang members know
Speaker 2: not to shoot us as we go past. It's taking
Speaker 2: him a while to radio each checkpoint on the route
Speaker 2: we're headed up. I'm happy about that, as he seems
Speaker 2: to be doing a thorough job. I absolutely do not
Speaker 2: want to get shot today or tomorrow or ever. Eventually
Speaker 2: the bikes turn up. I catch a ride up to
Speaker 2: the higher parts of Palat Fogato. After a few minutes
Speaker 2: I arrived first. Not ideal. They've got to go back
Speaker 2: down to get Carlos. They're pulled up to a wreck
Speaker 2: area with a load of concrete benches, a children's playground,
Speaker 2: and a mesh fence football court. There's around a dozen
Speaker 2: well armed gang members set around the benches, both young
Speaker 2: and older. As a unit, they're better around than the
Speaker 2: shooters we saw further down. These lads have a variety
Speaker 2: of different long barreled guns and side arms. At their hips.
Speaker 2: They have AK pattern rifles, AR fifteen platform rifles, fil
Speaker 2: para and G three A three. With all these guns
Speaker 2: around just meters away in the courts, kids are playing
Speaker 2: football and little children are watching. Gang members all look
Speaker 2: at each other and certainly then at me and starting
Speaker 2: to worry they didn't get the message don't shoot the gringo.
Speaker 2: I put on my friendliest smile wave and I say
Speaker 2: hi the kind of nod. Then look to an older
Speaker 2: guy wearing all red with long hair down his back.
Speaker 2: He's also the first person we've seen in the Favela
Speaker 2: with a beard. He has a Saga twelve semi auto
Speaker 2: shotgun slung over his shoulder and a whole belt of
Speaker 2: red shotgun shells fastened around his waist. He's like Favella Rambo.
Speaker 2: He nods to me and smiles white. Everyone relaxes a bit,
Speaker 2: and Carlos arrives on the back of the bike.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 2: Fuck, It's all good. Despite us being higher up, where
Speaker 2: as I've mentioned Favella's usually become more impoverished. This is
Speaker 2: actually a really nice neighborhood. The houses a makeshift and
Speaker 2: piled up still sure on this street, at least, they're
Speaker 2: all painted bright colors, green, pink, yellow. There were large
Speaker 2: bushes with blooming, multi colored flowers growing out of the
Speaker 2: tops of the flat roofs. A start to wonder if
Speaker 2: maybe a CV boss lives in this area. The guy
Speaker 2: with the combat shotgun who will call Red, and a
Speaker 2: younger member of the local gang are about to head
Speaker 2: off on a patrol of the area. They ask if
Speaker 2: we can join them, and they shrug okay, and they
Speaker 2: lead the way. The patrol is a pretty informal affair.
Speaker 2: Two gang bangers wander around the area with their guns drawn,
Speaker 2: but not like they're about to storm the front line.
Speaker 2: It's more just in case. The purpose of these patrols
Speaker 2: is to inspect the various CV checkpoints, to make sure
Speaker 2: the gang members are all doing their job that and
Speaker 2: to make sure there's no trouble in the neighborhood. It
Speaker 2: occurs to me that in a strange way, this is
Speaker 2: sort of what police back home do in the UK,
Speaker 2: or at least what they used to do a bobby
Speaker 2: on the beat. We call it as in police officers
Speaker 2: who are assigned to a local area to walk about,
Speaker 2: make sure things are okay, familiarize the people with the police.
Speaker 2: Now though generally police in the UK chase after insignificant
Speaker 2: nonsense and largely shy away from serious crime. I can't
Speaker 2: even remember the last time I saw a police officer
Speaker 2: get out of their car for anything other than an arrest,
Speaker 2: but the concept still sits in my head. As we
Speaker 2: walk around the upper levels of this Foravila neighborhood, CV
Speaker 2: has really taken on the role of the authorities in
Speaker 2: more ways than one, whether they realize it or not.
Speaker 2: As we head down some uneven concrete steps out of
Speaker 2: the more colorful neighborhoods, it becomes clear that actually this
Speaker 2: area is more impoverished than the lower levels. The stench
Speaker 2: of shits and sewages in the air. A few people
Speaker 2: around look addicted to drugs. We move through a checkpoint
Speaker 2: and the CV members on it look very high. They
Speaker 2: giggle and laugh and say hello to us. It's not
Speaker 2: ideal when they're all armed to the teeth. Red's nods
Speaker 2: at them, says a few words checks the radio, and
Speaker 2: we move off down a long set of stairs in
Speaker 2: a narrow side street halfway. I want to know what
Speaker 2: would happen if we encounter the police right now, if
Speaker 2: the police come through here, what happens? Well, if the
Speaker 2: lads there just said, without hesitation, we shoot a police
Speaker 2: straight away, we can't let them into the favela. We
Speaker 2: can't let them up here. This is not wann to
Speaker 2: be tough guys shit either. These lads are totally serious.
Speaker 2: They've probably already done it, almost without a doubt. It's
Speaker 2: a matter of fact. It happens here regularly. The cops
Speaker 2: kill them, they kill cops, the cops kill them, they
Speaker 2: kill cops. It goes on and on. Like players said,
Speaker 2: this is a war that will probably last till the
Speaker 2: end of time. Just as we're about to keep moving,
Speaker 2: an elderly man, maybe in its seventies, walks down the
Speaker 2: steps behind us with two huge bags of rubbish. He's
Speaker 2: trying to clean up the area or dump out his
Speaker 2: own home waist. I don't know. The two gang members
Speaker 2: part to let him through. The younger, I notice, immediately
Speaker 2: puts his back to the wall and looks straight down
Speaker 2: at the floor it's like a young kid put in
Speaker 2: a dunce corner. I could be wrong by a sense
Speaker 2: he feels some kind of shame. He's wearing a mask
Speaker 2: over his head, so it's not that he wants to
Speaker 2: hide his face, and yet still he hangs his head
Speaker 2: so his chin is almost touching his chest. The old
Speaker 2: fellow strides through the middle of us and doesn't look
Speaker 2: up at the gang members or me for a single second.
Speaker 2: He doesn't acknowledge any of us whatsoever. In my opinion,
Speaker 2: his body language like this suggests he is absolutely not
Speaker 2: a fan of these guys. It's a brief moment, but
Speaker 2: I see it almost as a silent protest. Maybe I'm
Speaker 2: looking into it too much. I don't know. These two
Speaker 2: gunmen are basically the security of his neighborhood, impoverished young
Speaker 2: men with guns who are untrained and unscrupulous. In every
Speaker 2: neighborhood there's a batch of these CV foot soldiers armed
Speaker 2: with black market guns. They're ready to fight at any time.
Speaker 2: In fact, last year there were over two thousand, five
Speaker 2: hundred shootings in this area of Real, Over one third
Speaker 2: of them were during police operations. Hundreds of civilians have
Speaker 2: been caught in the crossfire, and many don't even go
Speaker 2: to the hospital for fears they'll be accused of gang activity.
Speaker 2: Needless to say, the actual statistics are probably a lot higher.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not, the life expectancy in a favela
Speaker 2: like this is just forty eight years old. If you're
Speaker 2: not killed in a gang shootout or by deprivation or
Speaker 2: assassinated for something, you might just get shot to death
Speaker 2: by the police. It is not at all uncommon. As
Speaker 2: I've mentioned several times in this series, police brutality in
Speaker 2: Brazil is a long standing issue, but in recent years
Speaker 2: it's become even more severe, especially in the favelas and
Speaker 2: poorer urban areas. Brazil has one of the highest rates
Speaker 2: of police killings in the world. A lot of the
Speaker 2: violence is tied to the so called war on drugs,
Speaker 2: which is given the police a kind of unofficial license
Speaker 2: to go in hard and ask questions later, if at all.
Speaker 2: Here in Rio and in sal Paolo, operations often involve
Speaker 2: armored vehicles rolling into densely populated areas where shootouts erupt
Speaker 2: in broad daylight. Civilians frequently get caught in the crossfire,
Speaker 2: and accountability for that is almost non existent. What I
Speaker 2: find most shocking is the number of kids being killed.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty three, for example, police in Rio killed hundreds
Speaker 2: of people during operations, many of them just teenagers. These
Speaker 2: deaths are often justified as the result of confrontations with gangbangers,
Speaker 2: but investigations are very rare, So who even knows. Would
Speaker 2: you trust the word of a police force that is
Speaker 2: known to form a legal militias and deal drugs themselves.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. Even if cases do get investigated, they rarely
Speaker 2: lead to prosecution. Video evidence and witness testimony is routinely ignored,
Speaker 2: and the cops involved in such killings are usually back
Speaker 2: out on the streets in just days. People living here
Speaker 2: in the favelas often describe feeling under sieged by the
Speaker 2: police rather than protected. It's no wonder It's not just
Speaker 2: a few bad apple cops either. All the evidence suggests
Speaker 2: that this is a deeply embedded problem within the system
Speaker 2: here in Brazil, and many of these units are part
Speaker 2: of the elite forces like BOPE who are spoken about
Speaker 2: in a previous episode. They operate with heavy firepower and
Speaker 2: little oversight. Politicians often praise these aggressive tactics as being
Speaker 2: quote unquote tough on crime, especially during election cycles. We
Speaker 2: are surprise the sickly former president Bolsonaro put this mentality
Speaker 2: on steroids when he openly encouraged police to kill suspected
Speaker 2: criminals and promised legal protection for those who did. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that emboldened any local forces that were out for blood.
Speaker 2: Due to the nature of the combat in the favelas,
Speaker 2: there were no end of cops looking to take scalps.
Speaker 2: Community activists and human rights groups have been pushing back,
Speaker 2: but they face serious risks too. Some have been targeted
Speaker 2: or even killed for speaking out. In the end, it's
Speaker 2: the people living in the favelas who pay the ultimate price.
Speaker 2: The cycle of violence keeps turning, and the gap between
Speaker 2: the state and its citizens keeps growing. Nothing gets resolved.
Speaker 2: The next day I arrived early in the favela and
Speaker 2: it turns out we've been invited into the home of
Speaker 2: a local who lives under CV rule but is a
Speaker 2: civilian by choice. He has no intentions to join the
Speaker 2: gang and hopes to make it as a successful rapper.
Speaker 2: He goes by the name Flows, and he is completely
Speaker 2: uninvolved in gang activity. Let me be clear, he wants
Speaker 2: to keep it that way. This lab wasn't brought to
Speaker 2: us by CV either. This is not some fake press tour.
Speaker 2: It's a friend of a very trusted friend of mine
Speaker 2: that put us in touch. For me, this is a
Speaker 2: perfect opportunity to speak to a civilian in his own home.
Speaker 2: Here in the favela. We head up an extremely steep
Speaker 2: hill to meet floats. You almost have to put your
Speaker 2: hands out as you walk up it. As soon as
Speaker 2: we arrive, Flows is out. He's ready. A spot him
Speaker 2: at the back door of an alleyway that leads to
Speaker 2: his small favela rented dwelling.
Speaker 1: The sweir Ai.
Speaker 2: You we're going this way. I instantly like his vibe.
Speaker 2: He's clearly full of energy and he embraces me warmly,
Speaker 2: like we're old friends. He's in his early twenties, skinny
Speaker 2: with a little goatey beard, a baggy T shirt and
Speaker 2: a flat peak cap with Jay Diller embroidered into the
Speaker 2: front of it. Jay Diller being the highly influential American
Speaker 2: hip hop producer and rapper known for his work with
Speaker 2: artists like a tribe called Quest and Common. A follow
Speaker 2: flows into his house. It's small, airy, and honestly pretty cozy.
Speaker 2: The walls are all bare concrete as are the floors,
Speaker 2: but Flows has made it his own. There are world
Speaker 2: maps on the walls, an old worn out punch bag
Speaker 2: hanging from the ceiling, and a desk with a laptop
Speaker 2: and various different music equipments spilling over it. Seeing as
Speaker 2: me and my team are from the UK, Flows tells
Speaker 2: us he has a drill beat ready and wants to
Speaker 2: show us his rapping ability. Now, if you don't speak Portuguese,
Speaker 2: his verses what makes sense to you? But I'm gonna
Speaker 2: let it play in full anyway, as I don't think
Speaker 2: it matters if you don't understand Flows is a hidden
Speaker 2: for talent. Trust me on this.
Speaker 1: By the movie transiender save such result.
Speaker 2: So NOI.
Speaker 1: D c in pretty good but sabi if Finnish persona
Speaker 1: TV forma bid a familiar for find my spook kadi videos,
Speaker 1: I said, say d v V Christ and all that
Speaker 1: ten dollars ron bb. So I'm see in drug a
Speaker 1: quasarity taking a pointing ida them to do a bit.
Speaker 2: And some.
Speaker 1: Present brotig chill knack and child nu paid might say
Speaker 1: grid no pre seas I say by six Swish paid
Speaker 1: to balakom. They just said invitas. I say paid lad
Speaker 1: hev Stad will be need come to chill, chill pay
Speaker 1: and I might say grid no pre seas I say
Speaker 1: by six sush paid to Balakom. He just said ina,
Speaker 1: I say paid to lad he Shtad will be neat
Speaker 1: we commit.
Speaker 2: That's so there's a there's a lot of like, you know,
Speaker 2: gang activity around here. Do you find it hard to
Speaker 2: kind of stay away from that and just keep track
Speaker 2: doing your own thing with your music or is there
Speaker 2: a kind of like maybe a pressure where you feel
Speaker 2: maybe you would be doing better if you did join
Speaker 2: the gang or something like that.
Speaker 3: These people grow up close to complicate the situations. It's
Speaker 3: not compulsory to join, you know. I notice because music
Speaker 3: rescue me. In the favela. We are hostages off the system.
Speaker 3: The system brings nothing good to us. The system only
Speaker 3: comes here to kill.
Speaker 2: As someone that's growing up in this community, you were
Speaker 2: born here, raised here, you live here. Still it's run
Speaker 2: by CV. What do you think of the police. We
Speaker 2: haven't seen any, but I understand when they do come
Speaker 2: here things really kick off. As a local, what's your
Speaker 2: perception of the cops here?
Speaker 1: Would that police?
Speaker 3: I don't feel safe aroundto police in the community when
Speaker 3: they come here. In almost all cases, it's to hurt people.
Speaker 3: They want to build a completely desensitized society. The police
Speaker 3: have a lot to do with this, because it's like
Speaker 3: they have pushed people to become monsters.
Speaker 2: So when you're out of the favela and you're in
Speaker 2: like the main areas of real the less impoverished areas,
Speaker 2: how do you feel, do you feel like that's the
Speaker 2: same place or not? Because for us, honestly, it feels
Speaker 2: like the government has completely abandoned the favelas and only
Speaker 2: cares about like downtown.
Speaker 1: I mean, how does it feel to you satiategy quality.
Speaker 3: I feel a very strong collective instinct here. You have respect,
Speaker 3: affection and a great admiration for the people you see
Speaker 3: there through good times and bad. In the cities, it's
Speaker 3: more difficult because people are very elitis. They have ideas.
Speaker 3: They are totally different form a collective one. In many
Speaker 3: buildings they don't even great dormant, they don't even know
Speaker 3: their neighbors even though they have lived there for years.
Speaker 2: Do you have any fear of like CV or because
Speaker 2: you see them they're up and down here that arms Obviously,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of violence when the police come in.
Speaker 2: Is that something you feel as a local, like you
Speaker 2: scared of them? Or do you feel like they protect you.
Speaker 3: We have learned to get used to it because our
Speaker 3: reality is in a certain way safer. Who can I
Speaker 3: explain this? Like here, if I leave my window open,
Speaker 3: I know no one will rob my house, no one
Speaker 3: steals from anyone here, so in a way I feel
Speaker 3: more at ease. However, we should never normalize it to
Speaker 3: ans like we have here because we know many people
Speaker 3: who are in CB and it's a very risky lifestyle,
Speaker 3: so to normalize this would be psychotics.
Speaker 2: Have you lost anyone due to this life? A yah?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I will tell you. He was a really
Speaker 3: good kid, a very nice person. Renato died at the
Speaker 3: top of a gatro. The police were hiding inside a
Speaker 3: children's nursery. Bro. A nursery should be used for good things.
Speaker 3: Military police hiding there and they kill him.
Speaker 2: He was a good dad.
Speaker 3: Now his son is growing up to be a beautiful kid. Bro.
Speaker 1: I am tired of this.
Speaker 3: This is how we live in the favela. A favela
Speaker 3: resident is always discriminated against. Regardless of where you're at,
Speaker 3: you will always be a sass.
Speaker 2: How does it work if someone comes into your house
Speaker 2: when you're not here still with a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: and then gone, like, who do you go to say
Speaker 2: you have a dispute? Are you able to go to
Speaker 2: CV to like deal with disputes.
Speaker 1: Like that or not?
Speaker 3: That's an impossible situation. There is no way the favailables
Speaker 3: will that it happen here.
Speaker 2: With this, Flows starts laughing. I think the message is clear.
Speaker 2: No one would dare act top in the Favela when
Speaker 2: CV is around. You've been listening to the White Days
Speaker 2: podcast next week, the final part of Favela Government. To
Speaker 2: watch independent of Waydays documentaries, subscribe to our channel at
Speaker 2: YouTube dot com slash at Awaydaze TV. Your Way Day's
Speaker 2: Podcast is a production of H eleven Studio for Cool
Speaker 2: Zone Media. Reporting, producing, writing, editing and research by me
Speaker 2: Jake Hanrahan, co producing by Sophie Lichtermint music by Sam
Speaker 2: Black and in this episode, Diamondstein sound mixed by Splicing Block.
Speaker 2: Photography by Johnny Pickup and Louis Hollis. Graphic design by
Speaker 2: Laura Adamson and Casey Highfield.