On Patrol With Favela Security

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Speaker 10 You're listening to the Away Days podcast on the ground outside reporting from the underbelly with me, Jake Hanrahan.

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Speaker 10 This is part two for Velo Government,

Speaker 8 episode three.

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Speaker 10 After talking to Player, I understand the CV outlook a little better.

Speaker 10 Unlike some of the other gangs, they at least want to be seen to be helping the people.

Speaker 10 But whilst it's true that CV generally didn't tax people back in the day, it's not like it used to be.

Speaker 10 There are now reports of the gang charging favela residents for everything from parking spaces to internet access, just like a conventional government.

Speaker 10 In fact, CV has the resources of the favela lockdown so well that in some cases they've literally made their own internet service providers.

Speaker 10 In this article from 2022, journalist Graham Slattery details how armed gangs even chased out repairmen who'd been sent to a terminal to fix what showed as a disruption in service.

Speaker 10 That it definitely was

Speaker 10 As Rio de Janeiro residents sheltered at home last year during the deadliest phase of Brazil's COVID-19 outbreak Police detective Gabriel Ferrando said he got a tip that something suspicious was upending local internet service.

Speaker 10 Access had vanished across broad swaths of Morro di Formiga or the Anthill, a tough neighborhood on the city's north side.

Speaker 10 When Ferrando quizzed a technician from a broadband provider tasked with fixing the outage, the worker, who he declined to name, said armed men had chased him away with a warning not to return.

Speaker 10 Turns out a new internet provider had claimed this turf.

Speaker 10 A company whose investors at one time included an accused drug and arms trafficker with ties to Brazil's notorious Red Command crime syndicate.

Speaker 10 Using stolen property, some of it pilfered from the internet provider TIM, the newcomers soon had their own internet service up and running. Residents could sign up with the new firm or do without.

Speaker 10 End quote.

Speaker 10 Antil wasn't the only place affected either. The journalists interviewed almost two dozen telecoms executives, law enforcement officials and internet users in Brazil.

Speaker 10 They also reviewed thousands of pages of court documents submitted by the police.

Speaker 10 What they found was, quote, an audacious takeover of internet service in dozens of neighbourhoods in Brazil's major cities by companies associated with alleged criminals unafraid to use force and intimidation to push out rivals.

Speaker 10 The result is that tens of thousands of Brazilians now depend on unreliable second-rate broadband networks estimated by industry and law enforcement officials to be generating millions of dollars annually for purported crooks.

Speaker 10 End quote.

Speaker 10 So the webbing of telegraph wires above our heads in the favela is part of CV's telecoms empire.

Speaker 10 The many different sized antennas and satellite dishes I've seen jerry-rigged onto the top of roofs and the sides of favela housing provides residents internet and television.

Speaker 10 Let's call it CVNT.

Speaker 10 It's the most popular provider in the whole of the favela because CVNT is the only provider in the whole of the favela.

Speaker 10 If you want to surf the web, you'll be doing it with gang-made internet technology. Real favela innovation.
In this case, it's a way to make more money from the citizens of the favela.

Speaker 10 You could argue, so what?

Speaker 10 Why should the local gang not make some extra money from an internet provider? Well, I think the issue is that the residents have no other choice.

Speaker 10 Use CVNT or don't have internet it's hardly a free market if the other competitors are chased away with literal machine guns

Speaker 10 in fallet for gotero we seem to have gained some kind of trust the gang members are surprised we keep coming back each day and are definitely more comfortable with us around than they were at the start a few have even waved or nodded at us as we move past them at various checkpoints checkpoints.

Speaker 10 We move further up the hills into the shakier heights of the favelas.

Speaker 10 See, as you move higher into the hills of a Brazilian favela, the physical, social and infrastructural landscape changes dramatically.

Speaker 10 Favelas are often built on steep land that the formal city avoids. The glass and metal skyrises of the city are certainly not built on hillsides, ravines and floodplains.

Speaker 10 The lower levels of the favela tend to be more accessible and as a result have better access to what limited public infrastructure there is.

Speaker 10 Over time these services might extend upwards but not always.

Speaker 10 Housing near the base of the favela is usually denser and more established, built from brick, concrete or as we've seen, brittle breeze blocks.

Speaker 10 These homes are often two or more stories, sometimes with small shops or makeshift businesses businesses on the ground level.

Speaker 10 As I travel further up into the favela, it's clear that construction becomes a lot more improvised.

Speaker 10 Buildings on the upper slopes are usually smaller, built from cheaper materials like wood or sheet metal, and many lack proper foundations.

Speaker 10 The angles of some of these dwellings look as if they're filmed on a fisheye lens. Outer walls are sometimes bowing with weight and there are huge water butts hanging off the edges of many homes here.

Speaker 10 probably their only chance to get decent water the jungle landscape becomes more dense also and so the area is susceptible to landslides particularly during rainy season these upper zones are at greater environmental risk and often house the poorest families one of the main issues here believe it or not is global warming amongst all of the guns and the drugs and the violence even pollution is getting the people here

Speaker 10 the community reporting reporting platform Rio on Watch has covered this problem extensively in an article by Carla Regina.

Speaker 10 She wrote, quote,

Speaker 10 These phenomena leave some displaced and homeless, forced to live in public shelters or with relatives.

Speaker 10 Local governments in Brazil generally register them for social rent if they are unable to access public housing programmes such as Miena Casamina Vida.

Speaker 10 But not everyone affected is covered by these programmes, and even when they are, many report the payments received are lower than the rents charged in the favelas.

Speaker 10 Thus, many favela residents choose to return to their former addresses to rebuild their homes.

Speaker 10 Others join the homeless movement, occupying vacant lots or abandoned public and private buildings that are not fulfilling the social function of property as outlined in the Brazilian Constitution.

Speaker 10 The complete absence of public services in higher parts of the favelas is alarming. Ravines are giving way, gradually eroding with each bout of rain.

Speaker 10 With a few more storms, which are common in Rio, it's likely these will collapse, wiping away everything and everyone in their way.

Speaker 10 Tall trees grow on unstable soil and without proper care from the authorities. They're also a cause of concern amongst residents.
They're close to falling onto their houses.

Speaker 10 It's a tragedy waiting to happen. One of the favela houses I visited in 2019 used to be occupied by a woman and her pregnant daughter.

Speaker 10 Back then it was already in precarious conditions and did not have electricity.

Speaker 10 The woman and her daughter cooked outside in their backyard on a makeshift brick stove using charcoal and a refrigerator grill.

Speaker 10 When I spoke to the pregnant daughter in 2019, she said she felt no danger living there.

Speaker 10 She was already used to it, and while almost everything got wet when it rained, she could sleep wherever the rain hadn't fallen. Today the house is even more run down.

Speaker 10 End quote

Speaker 10 In the time we've been here in the favela, it's rained heavily several times.

Speaker 10 Each roof drips water constantly, and a stream of debris and uncollected rubbish pushes filth and probably disease down some parts of the open hills.

Speaker 10 One of the few benefits of living higher up in the favelas though are the views, if you can call that a benefit in such poverty.

Speaker 10 We turn a corner after five minutes stomping up an almost vertical hill and are greeted with the natural beauty of the jungle in front of us. Lush leaves, thick branches and green for miles.

Speaker 10 Just around the corner though, on the other side of this strip, the view is the opposite. You can see all the main roads into the favela from here and the normality of the city out in the distance.

Speaker 10 Suddenly I hear the crackle of a radio. Behind us there's a young lad dressed in a black t-shirt with a black hat and blue denim shorts sat with a few guns at a higher vantage point.

Speaker 10 He's a lookout, watching here all day and informing his higher ups of any suspicious activity.

Speaker 10 His plastic chair is placed within a few feet of the front door of a makeshift house. It's decorated out front with a mix of different brightly coloured flowers.

Speaker 10 There's even a little tortoise moving slowly through the garden. I marvel at the tortoise as the lookout moves around, putting his pistol into the band of his trousers and nodding at us vaguely.

Speaker 10 He doesn't want to talk as he's busy working, but he's friendly and he seems chilled out with us around. I reckon he's about 16 years old.

Speaker 10 In this area, despite the young gunman keeping watch of everything, there is a lot less going on and it does feel more peaceful.

Speaker 10 Socially, there's also a subtle status hierarchy in some favelas depending on how high up you are. While in most cities the higher ground means wealth, in favelas the opposite is often true.

Speaker 10 As I've said, residents at the bottom tend to have better economic opportunities given their proximity to transport, employment and services.

Speaker 10 Those living at the top are usually more isolated and have to navigate these long steep hills.

Speaker 10 It's not uncommon for people to have to carry water, fuel or even construction materials by hand up the hillside.

Speaker 10 Community investment and urban upgrading projects typically begin in lower or mid-level zones where access is easier and the property is more stable.

Speaker 10 Higher up areas tend to be last in line for improvements like lighting, pavements and public spaces.

Speaker 10 Ultimately, the higher you go in a favela, the more precarious life can be, structurally, environmentally and economically.

Speaker 10 I want to go even further up to see what life is like there. Carlos isn't sure, but he makes a few calls.
After a few minutes, he gets a message.

Speaker 10 Basically, we have permission, but at our own risk.

Speaker 10 The motorbike taxis will come to take us further, but one of the gang members has to radio each checkpoint first to let the gang members know not to shoot us as we go past.

Speaker 10 It's taken him a while to radio each checkpoint on the route we're headed up. I'm happy about that as he seems to be doing a thorough job.

Speaker 10 I absolutely do not want to get shot today or tomorrow or or ever.

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Speaker 10 Eventually the bikes turn up. I catch a ride up to the higher parts of Falat Fogotero.

Speaker 10 After a few minutes I arrive first. Not ideal.
They got to go back down to get Carlos.

Speaker 10 We pulled up to a wreck area with a load of concrete benches, a children's playground and a mesh fence football court.

Speaker 10 There's around a dozen armed gang members sat around the benches, both young and older.

Speaker 10 As a unit they're better armed than the shooters we saw further down.

Speaker 10 These lads have a variety of different long barrel guns and sidearms at their hips.

Speaker 10 They have AK pattern rifles, AR-15 platform rifles, Falpara and G3A3.

Speaker 10 With all these guns around, just meters away in the courts, kids are playing football and little children are watching.

Speaker 10 Gang members all look at each other uncertainly, then at me. I'm starting to worry they didn't get the message, don't shoot the gringo.

Speaker 10 I put on my friendliest smile, wave and I say hi. They kind of nod, then look to an older guy wearing all red with long hair down his back.

Speaker 10 He's also the first person we've seen in the favela with a beard.

Speaker 10 He has a Sega 12 semi-auto shotgun slung over his shoulder and a whole belt of red shotgun shells fastened around his waist. He's like favela Rambo.

Speaker 10 He nods to me and smiles wide. Everyone relaxes a bit and Carlos arrives on the back of the bike.
Thank fuck.

Speaker 10 It's all good.

Speaker 10 Despite us being higher up where as I've mentioned favelas usually become more impoverished, this is actually a really nice neighborhood.

Speaker 10 The houses are makeshift and piled up still, sure, but on this street at least they're all painted bright colours. Green, pink, yellow.

Speaker 10 There are large bushes with blooming multicoloured flowers growing out of the tops of the flat roofs. I start to wonder if maybe a CV boss lives in this area.

Speaker 10 The guy with a combat shotgun who we'll call red and a younger member of the local gang are about to head off on a patrol of the area.

Speaker 10 I ask if we can join them and they shrug, okay, and they lead the way.

Speaker 10 The patrol is a pretty informal affair. The two armed gangbangers wander around the area with their guns drawn, but not like they're about to storm a frontline, it's more just in case.

Speaker 10 The purpose of these patrols is to inspect the various CV checkpoints and make sure the gang members are all doing their job, that and to make sure there's no trouble in the neighbourhood.

Speaker 10 It occurs to me that in a strange way, this is sort of what police back home do in the UK. or at least what they used to do.

Speaker 10 A bobby on the beat we call it, as in police officers who are assigned to a local area to walk about and make sure things are okay, familiarise the people with the police.

Speaker 10 Now though, generally police in the UK chase after insignificant nonsense and largely shy away from serious crime.

Speaker 10 I can't even remember the last time I saw a police officer get out of their car for anything other than an arrest.

Speaker 10 But the concept still sits in my head as we walk around the upper levels of this favela neighbourhood.

Speaker 10 CV has really taken on the role of the authorities in more ways than one, whether they realize it or not.

Speaker 10 As we head down some uneven concrete steps out of the more colourful neighbourhoods, it becomes clear that actually this area is more impoverished than the lower levels.

Speaker 10 The stench of shit and sewage is in the air. A few people around look addicted to drugs.
We move through a checkpoint and the CV members on it look very high.

Speaker 10 They giggle and laugh and say hello to us. It's not ideal when they're all armed to the teeth.

Speaker 10 Reds nods at them, says a few words, checks a radio and we move off down a long set of stairs in a narrow side street. Halfway, I want to know what would happen if we encountered the police right now.

Speaker 10 Both the lads there just said without hesitation, we shoot at police straight away, we can't let them into the favela, We can't let them up here.

Speaker 10 This is not wannabe tough guy shit either. These lads are totally serious.
They've probably already done it almost without a doubt. It's matter of fact, it happens here regularly.

Speaker 10 The cops kill them. They kill cops.
The cops kill them. They kill cops.
It goes on and on.

Speaker 10 Like player said, this is a war that will probably last till the end of time.

Speaker 10 Just as we're about to keep moving, an elderly man, maybe in his 70s, walks down the steps behind us with two huge bags of rubbish.

Speaker 10 He's trying to clean up the area, or dump out his own home waste, I don't know. The two gang members part to let him through.

Speaker 10 The younger one, I notice, immediately puts his back to the wall and looks straight down at the floor. It's like a young kid put in a dunce corner.

Speaker 10 I could be wrong, but I sense he feels some kind of shame.

Speaker 10 He's wearing a mask over his head, so it's not that he wants to hide his face, and yet still he hangs his head so his chin is almost touching his chest.

Speaker 10 The old fellow strides through the middle of us and doesn't look up at the gang members or me for a single second. He doesn't acknowledge any of us whatsoever.

Speaker 10 In my opinion, his body language like this suggests he is absolutely not a fan of these guys.

Speaker 10 It's a brief moment, but I see it almost as a silent protest. Maybe I'm looking into it too much.

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 10 These two gunmen are basically the security of his neighborhood. Impoverished young men with guns who are untrained and unscrupulous.

Speaker 10 In every neighbourhood there's a batch of these CV foot soldiers armed with black market guns. They're ready to fight at any time.

Speaker 10 In fact, last year there were over 2,500 shootings in this area of Rio.

Speaker 10 Over one third of them were during police operations. Hundreds of civilians have been caught in the crossfire and many don't even go to the hospital for fears they'll be accused of gang activity.

Speaker 10 Needless to say, the actual statistics are probably a lot higher.

Speaker 10 Believe it or not, the life expectancy in a favela like this is just 48 years old.

Speaker 10 If you're not killed in a gang shootout or by deprivation or assassinated for something, you might just get shot to death by the police.

Speaker 10 It is not at all uncommon.

Speaker 10 As As I've mentioned several times in this series, police brutality in Brazil is a long-standing issue, but in recent years it's become even more severe, especially in the favelas and poorer urban areas.

Speaker 10 Brazil has one of the highest rates of police killings in the world.

Speaker 10 A lot of the violence is tied to the so-called war on drugs, which is giving the police a kind of unofficial license to go inhard and ask questions later, if at all.

Speaker 10 Here in Rio and in Sao Paulo, operations often involve armoured vehicles rolling into densely populated areas where shootouts erupt in broad daylight.

Speaker 10 Civilians frequently get caught in the crossfire and accountability for that is almost non-existent.

Speaker 10 What I find most shocking is the number of kids being killed. In 2023, for example, police in Rio killed hundreds of people during operations, many of them just teenagers.

Speaker 10 These deaths are often justified as the result of confrontations with gangbangers, but investigations are very rare, so who even knows?

Speaker 10 Would you trust the word of a police force that is known to form illegal militias and deal drugs themselves? I wouldn't.

Speaker 10 Even if cases do get investigated, they rarely lead to prosecution.

Speaker 10 Video evidence and witness testimony is routinely ignored and the cops involved in such killings are usually back out on the streets in just days.

Speaker 10 People living here in the favelas often describe feeling under siege by the police rather than protected. It's no wonder.

Speaker 10 It's not just a few bad Apple cops either. All the evidence suggests that this is a deeply embedded problem within the system here in Brazil.

Speaker 10 And many of these units are part of the elite forces like Bope, who I spoke about in a previous episode. They operate with heavy firepower and little oversight.

Speaker 10 Politicians often praise these aggressive tactics as being quote-unquote tough on crime, especially during election cycles. What a surprise!

Speaker 10 The sickly former President Bolsonaro put this mentality on steroids when he openly encouraged police to kill suspected criminals and promised legal protection for those who did.

Speaker 10 Obviously that emboldened any local forces that were out for blood.

Speaker 10 Due to the nature of the combat in the favelas there were no end of cops looking to take scalps.

Speaker 10 Community activists and human rights groups have been pushing back but they face serious risks too. Some have been targeted or even killed for speaking out.

Speaker 10 In the end, it's the people living in the favelas who pay the ultimate price.

Speaker 10 The cycle of violence keeps turning and the gap between the state and its citizens keeps growing. Nothing gets resolved.

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Speaker 10 The next day, I arrive early in the favela, and it turns out we've been invited into the home of a local who lives under CV rule, but is a civilian by choice.

Speaker 10 He has no intentions to join the gang and hopes to make it as a successful rapper. He goes by the name Floes and he is completely uninvolved in gang activity.
Let me be clear.

Speaker 10 He wants to keep it that way. This lab wasn't brought to us by CV either.
This is not some fake press tour. It's a friend of a very trusted friend of mine that put us in touch.

Speaker 10 For me, this is a perfect opportunity to speak to a civilian in his own home here in the favela.

Speaker 10 We head up an extremely steep hill to meet Floes. You almost have to put your hands out as you walk up it.

Speaker 10 As soon as we arrive, Floes is out, he's ready. I spot him at the back door of an alleyway that leads to his small favela-rented dwelling.

Speaker 10 I instantly like his vibe. He's clearly full of energy and he embraces me warmly like we're old friends.

Speaker 10 He's in his early 20s, skinny with a little goatee beard, a baggy t-shirt and a a flat peak cap with Jay Diller embroidered into the front of it.

Speaker 10 Jay Diller being the highly influential American hip-hop producer and rapper known for his work with artists like A Tribe Called Quest and Common.

Speaker 10 I follow Flows into his house. It's small, airy and honestly pretty cozy.
The walls are all bare concrete as are the floors. but Flows has made it his own.

Speaker 10 There are world maps on the walls, an old worn-out punch bag hanging from the ceiling, and a desk with a laptop and various different music equipment spilling over it.

Speaker 10 Seeing as me and my team are from the UK, Flos tells us he has a drill beat ready and wants to show us his rapping ability.

Speaker 10 Now, if you don't speak Portuguese, his verses won't make sense to you, but I'm gonna let it play in full anyway, as I don't think it matters if you don't understand.

Speaker 10 Floes is a hidden favela talent, trust me on this.

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Speaker 33 So there's a lot of like, you know, gang activity around here. Do you find it hard to kind of stay away from that and just keep track doing your own thing with your music?

Speaker 33 Or is there a kind of like maybe a pressure where you feel hmm, maybe you would be doing better if you did join the gang or something like that?

Speaker 32 These people grew up close to complicated situations. It's not compulsory to join, you know.

Speaker 32 I know this because music rescued me. In De Favela, we are hostages of the system.

Speaker 32 The system brings nothing good to us. The system only comes here to kill.

Speaker 33 As someone who's grown up in this community, you were born here, raised here, you live here still. It's run by CV.

Speaker 33 What do you think of the police? We haven't seen any, but I understand when they do come here, things really kick off. As a local, what's your perception of the cops here?

Speaker 32 I don't feel safe around the police. In the community, when they come here, in almost all cases, it's to hurt people.

Speaker 32 They want to build a completely desensitized society. The police have a lot to do with this because it's like they have pushed people to become monsters.

Speaker 33 So when you're out of the favela and you're in like the main areas of Rio, the less impoverished areas, how do you feel? Do you feel like that's the same place or not?

Speaker 33 Because for us, honestly, it feels like the government has completely abandoned the favelas and only cares about like downtown. I mean how does it feel to you?

Speaker 32 I feel a very strong collective instinct here. You have respect, affection and a great admiration for the people you see there through good times and bad.

Speaker 32 In the city, it's more difficult because people are very elitist. They have ideas that are totally different from our collective one.
In many buildings, they don't even greet a doorman.

Speaker 32 They don't even know their neighbor, even though they have lived there for years.

Speaker 33 Do you have any fear of like C V though? Because you see them, they're up and down here, they're armed. Obviously, there's a lot of violence when the police come in.

Speaker 33 Is that something you feel as a local? Like, are you scared of them, or or do you feel like they protect you?

Speaker 32 We have learned to get used to it because our reality is, in a certain way, safer.

Speaker 32 How can I explain this? Like,

Speaker 32 here, if I leave my window open, I know no one will rob my house. No one steals from anyone here.

Speaker 32 So, in a way, I feel more at ease.

Speaker 32 However, we should never normalize situations like we have here, because we know many people who are in CB and it's a very risky lifestyle. So, to normalize this will be psychotic.

Speaker 33 Have you lost anyone due to this life?

Speaker 32 Oh, yeah, I will tell you. He was a really good kid, a very nice person.
Renato died at the top of Fogatero.

Speaker 32 The police were hiding inside a children's nursery. Bro, a nursery should be used for good things.
Military police hid him there and they killed him. He was a good dad.

Speaker 32 Now his son is growing up to be a beautiful kid. Bro, I am tired of this.
This is how we live in the favela. A favela resident is always discriminated against.

Speaker 32 Regardless of where you're at, you will always be a suspect.

Speaker 33 How does it work if, say, someone comes into your house when you're not here, steals a load of stuff, and then gone? Like, who do you go to? Say you have a dispute.

Speaker 33 Are you able to go to CV to like deal with disputes like that or no?

Speaker 32 That's an impossible situation. There is no way the favela boss will ever happen here.

Speaker 10 With this, Flows starts laughing.

Speaker 10 I think the message is clear. No one would dare act up in the favela when CV is around.

Speaker 8 You've been listening to the Away Days podcast. Next week the final part of favela government.

Speaker 8 To watch independent away days documentaries subscribe to our channel at youtube.com slash at away days TV.

Speaker 8 The away days podcast is a production of H11 Studio for CoolZone Media. Reporting, producing, writing, editing and research by me, Jake Hanrahan.

Speaker 10 Co-producing by Sophie Lichterman.

Speaker 8 Music by Sam Black and in this episode Diamondstein. Sound mixed by Splicing Block.
Photography by Johnny Pickup and Louis Hollis. Graphic design by Laura Adamson and Casey Highfield.

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