Dancing With the Devil in the City of God: Rio De Janeiro on the Brink

by Juliana Barbassa

  An alleged drug trafficker aims a weapon within the Complexo do Alemão on Saturday, November 27, 2010. That day, armored vehicles were preparing to push past barriers into the favela complex as police increased pressure on drug traffickers believed to have ordered the wave of violence that had terrorized the city. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  The author, right, conferring with her editor on the phone and with Flora Charner, in charge of AP Rio’s video side, during the police occupation of Vila Cruzeiro. © Austral Foto/Renzo Gostoli

  A woman holding a baby hides behind a door as an armored police vehicle patrols during an operation at the Complexo do Alemão. Alemão was the main base of the city’s biggest drug gang when it was invaded by 2,600 police and soldiers on Sunday, November 28, 2010. © AP Photo/Andre Penner

  Police plant a Brazilian flag at the highest peak in the Complexo do Alemão on Sunday, November 28, 2010, to mark their takeover of the sprawling conglomerate of favelas, an unprecedented accomplishment in their fight to secure Rio. © AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo

  Rio state Public Safety Director Jose Beltrame, second right, talks to the blue-clad officers of the Pacification Police Units, or UPPs in their Portuguese acronym, on November 6, 2010. Beltrame, the architect of the UPP program, was celebrating the creation of the thirteenth UPP unit in the Morro dos Macacos favela. Rio would descend into chaos that month as armed men set up roadblocks and torched vehicles, and police responded by invading more than twenty favelas and engaging traffickers in massive shootouts. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  A girl carries a bottle uphill back-dropped by a recently inaugurated cable car at the Complexo do Alemão on Monday, October 24, 2011. The gondolas were inaugurated in July 2011 and came at a cost of $105 million, yet only serve a fraction of the community. Installing the eye-catching cable car route required the removal of over two thousand families. Many residents remain in wait for essential services such as regulated water and electricity. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Two little girls in uniform walk to school past heavily armed police officers patrolling Alemão. The army remained there for more than a year after the complex of favelas was seized. The transition from soldiers to police officers happened around the time this photo was taken, on March 27, 2012. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Gustavo Nascimento da Silva, age five, flies his kite atop one of the roofs at the Santa Marta favela. In 2008 police stormed this favela, and it became the pilot in the UPP program, which intended to reclaim communities such as this one from gang control and bring government services. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Customers get a haircut at Zé do Carmo’s barbershop in Santa Marta. A consummate businessman, Zé do Carmo took advantage of Rio’s improving economy and of the police presence to hike up rents on the houses he owns within the community. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Leidemar Barreto stands outside her home in Santa Marta on December 17, 2010. Turning the favela into a model UPP unit improved safety and lowered crime rates, but it also raised the cost of living within the community, making life harder for single mothers such as Leidemar. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  An aerial view shows a neighborhood damaged by landslides in the town of Nova Friburgo, in northern Rio state, on January 16, 2011. Weary from days of steady rain and bracing for more thunderstorms, survivors of mudslides that killed around one thousand people carried food, water, and blankets to friends, neighbors, and relatives still stranded in remote villages. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  A family mourns after the burial of a landslide victim in Teresópolis, in northern Rio state, on Friday, January 14, 2011, surrounded by other freshly dug graves and drenched by the unceasing rain. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Garbage litters the shores of Guanabara Bay in this August 18, 2011, photo. The pollution resulting from decades of neglect and unplanned growth has long meant foul beaches and health hazards for local residents, but it became a matter of international concern as Brazil prepared to host the world’s two biggest sporting events, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Kids play alongside a polluted river in the Varginha area of the Manguinhos favela complex in a photo taken Sunday, July 14, 2013. While the lack of sewage treatment and garbage collection affects all residents, those in poorer communities are often exposed to the greatest health hazards. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  A woman sorting recyclables at the Gramacho waste site reacts as a dump truck pours out its load in a photo taken February 10, 2011. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  A group of trash sorters collect recyclable materials from the Gramacho landfill as vultures circle overhead, waiting their turn. Guanabara Bay stretches out in the background. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  The Rio 2016 Olympic golf course, seen here under construction on May 13, 2014. The golf course’s location on a reserve has raised a number of environmental concerns. Gated communities, common in Rio’s affluent west side, rise all around the proposed golf course. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Biologist Ricardo Freitas weighs a broad-snouted caiman before releasing it back in the water channel in the affluent western suburb of Recreio dos Bandeirantes on October 14, 2013. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Protestors march through downtown Rio and are reflected on a glass-fronted building, left, on June 17, 2013. In a 2012 poll, more than three-fourths of Brazilians said they believed corruption had infused Brazil’s preparation for the World Cup. Their anger fueled widespread and often violent anti-government protests that sent more than 1 million Brazilians into the street during FIFA’s Confederations Cup soccer tournament, the warm-up event to the World Cup. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  Protests and clashes between marchers and police continued to erupt in Rio and around Brazil through 2013 and 2014, increasing tension in the months leading up to the World Cup. In this photo, police pepper-spray and strike protesters from the Pavão-Pavãozinho favela, on the mountains straddling Ipanema and Copacabana, after the burial of a young man from the community who they believed had been killed by police. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  A woman bathes a child in the Favela do Metrô, just outside Maracanã stadium on Thursday, January 9, 2014. Residents from this community were forced from their homes, often without proper compensation or alternative housing, as authorities began to renovate the area for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  A man wearing a headdress and another wearing a ski mask sit on a windowsill on the site of an old Indian museum, within view of the Maracanã stadium, on Saturday, January 12, 2013. Police in riot gear had surrounded the site, which was an indigenous settlement of men and women living in ten homes, and prepared to enforce their eviction. The Maracanã stadium was being refurbished to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics and the final match of the 2014 World Cup. © AP Photo/Felipe Dana

  An indigenous man peers over the wall of an abandoned Indian museum building next door to the Maracanã stadium. The old museum had been remade into an encampment of indigenous people who needed a place to stay in Rio. Police surrounded the building, preparing to evict them. The streets around the stadium were undergoing a vast transformation as part of plans to remake the region into a shopping and sports entertainment hub. Personal archive/Christopher Gaffney

  A portrait of Luana, a sex worker and advocate for other travesti sex workers in Rio’s bohemian Lapa neighborhood. She’s shown in her office and pension, where she rents out rooms and watches over dozens of younger travestis. © Núria López Torres

  Rio has thousands of sex workers, catering to all desires and budgets, and ranging from exclusive call girls who don’t advertise, to prostitutes who walk the streets, to sex workers who paste explicit ads inside phone booths, such as this one downtown. The ads specify if the sex worker is female or a travesti. Personal archive

&n
bsp; After months of protests and clashes with the police, tension broke and Rio residents began to decorate streets in the national colors in the days leading up to the 2014 World Cup. © Personal archive

  Brazil’s national team leads fans in an emotional rendition of the national anthem before the World Cup semifinal soccer match between Brazil and Germany on Tuesday, July 8, 2014. David Luiz, right, and goalkeeper Júlio Cesar hold up the team jersey of injured Brazilian star Neymar as they sing. © AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  My return to Rio has been a fascinating, at times infuriating, but thoroughly unforgettable journey; writing a book about the city during a period of intense transformation, when so much was at stake, deepened my connection to the place and proved to be one of my most rewarding experiences. I am deeply grateful to all those who made it possible, and all—from close friends and family to colleagues to complete strangers—who were endlessly patient with my questions, generous with their time, and always willing to listen. My name goes on the cover, but the effort and merit in this work is widely shared.

  My first and biggest thank-you goes to my literary agent, David Halpern, who believed in this project from the moment I walked into his office with nothing but an idea. He’s been an exceptional professional, a compassionate listener in moments of crisis, and always a generous human being, unstinting with his time, wisdom, and advice.

  I also had the good fortune of having Michelle Howry as an editor, and the whip-smart team at Touchstone/Simon & Schuster on my side. Michelle’s thoughtful suggestions improved the manuscript enormously, breaking up wordy chapters into readable chunks and guiding me smoothly through the production process. To the copyeditor, the book and cover designers, the mapmakers, and all those at Touchstone who have been so good to this book and who made the production process so seamless, my most heartfelt thanks.

  Outside Touchstone, many attentive readers helped shape this book, improving it at every turn. I am most grateful to the lovely JillEllyn Riley, who walked with me through the hardest months, reading first drafts and second drafts, offering support, insight and a measure of calm, always ready to bridge the distance between New York and Rio through long Skype chats and terrible phone connections. Thank you for it all.

  Other friends and colleagues lent their expertise and their time, reading over specific chapters and giving feedback. Thank you, foremost, to Joelle Hahn, a lover of all things Rio with a keen eye for language, for your time and good will; and to Maureen Gaffney, for your focus and your detailed comments.

  It has been my extraordinary luck to write about Rio alongside a stellar group of correspondents. They were my companions and my teachers, and I relied on them in my work and in life, as friendships deepened over deadlines and drinks. Many helped me directly—thank you, Juan Pablo Spinetto, Tariq Panja, Julia Michaels, Arturo Lezcano and Tom Phillips for your comments, and Simon and Carol Romero, Jon Watts, Jenny Barchfield, Marcelo Lessa, Cecilia Olliveira and Andrew Fishman for advice on various levels. Taylor Barnes and Catherine Osborn did some of the research heavy lifting; those endless hours of interviews wouldn’t have been transcribed without the untiring Lanna Leite and Zoe Roller. Manuela Andreoni was a dream fact-checker—a worthy journalist in her own right, deeply knowledgeable about Rio, and unflaggingly attentive to detail. Other friends—Alberto Armendariz, Javier Tovar, Laura Bonilla, Gerardo Lissardy, Flora Charner, Felipe Dana and the rest of the AP team, meus muito queridos Daniel Silva and Diego Galeano—were essential parts of my life and helped shape the way I saw Rio. Thank you for being there, and for your warmth and friendship.

  This book would not have been possible without all those who opened their lives and told me their stories. This includes the individuals whose stories are told here, but many whose voices were not included for simple lack of space; obrigada, in particular, to Otávio Júnior, Rene Silva Santos, Maycom Brum and Flávia Froes for helping me understand Alemão and what happened there. Inalva Mendes Brito has spent years working on behalf of Vila Autódromo and countless hours sharing that experience. Obrigada de coração.

  A number of experts helped frame my understanding of specific aspects of Rio. Among those whose contributions shaped this book and who are not named elsewhere are Ignacio Cano, foremost researcher on violence in Rio; Theresa Williamson, tireless investigator and advocate of favelas; Mário Moscatelli and Marcelo Mello, biologists who have dedicated decades to improving Rio’s natural environment; Carlos Amorin, whose knowledge of Rio’s criminal history and the Comando Vermelho in particular is unparalleled; and Adalberto Megale and Cristina Pinho at Petrobras, who helped me delve into the connection between pre-salt oil exploration and the renovation of Brazil’s ports. This book would have been far poorer without your patience and generosity.

  I owe much thanks to my family—my parents, Rosa and Almir Barbassa; my siblings, Tatiana and Guilherme; their partners, Jaime and Luciana; and their children, the little Cariocas I love the most. They are my emotional tether to this beautiful and mad city, and the reason I care so deeply what becomes of it. They were steadfast supporters not so much of this project but of me, and that is what matters most.

  Finally, I owe my greatest debt to Christopher Gaffney. He is my love and my partner, my sharpest critic, my keenest reader and my most devoted ally. His wit, his kindness and his moral compass were essential when navigating the rougher patches of this work and of life in a difficult city. Thank you.

  GLOSSARY

  Arrego: regular bribes paid to police to allow ongoing illegal activity.

  Bala perdida: “lost bullet”; refers to stray bullets that hit unintended victims.

  Banda podre: “the rotten half”; refers to the corrupt segments of the police force.

  Bandido bom é bandido morto: “A good criminal is a dead criminal”; saying used to justify violence against anyone suspected of a crime.

  Barraca, and barraqueiro: beach shack where one can buy drinks and rent umbrellas or beach chairs, and the person who runs it.

  Cartório: registry or notary public’s office.

  Caveirão: the armored vehicle used by Rio’s elite police squad, the BOPE; it is nicknamed caveirão, or big skull, because it is black and usually carries the squad’s skull and dagger symbol emblazoned on the side.

  Chimarrão: hot, strong, unsweetened mate tea traditionally drunk from a gourd in southern Brazil.

  Chopp: a light draft beer, usually served extremely cold and in tall, thin glasses.

  Cidade Maravilhosa: “the Marvelous City,” nickname for Rio de Janeiro, based on a song written for the 1935 Carnaval that has become Rio’s informal anthem.

  Comunidade: “community”; often used in lieu of favela.

  Condomínios: Gated residential communities.

  Convivência: coexistence

  Copa do Mundo: the World Cup.

  Copa das Copas: an expression meaning “Cup of Cups”; the motto of an advertising campaign designed to promote the World Cup to Brazilians.

  Custo Brasil: the hidden costs of functioning in Brazil, such as the poor transportation infrastructure or the high tax burden.

  Deus dará: literally, “God will provide”; expression often used to describe circumstances that cannot be helped.

  Favela: low-income communities that often started as informal settlements lacking basic services.

  Futebol: soccer

  Futebol arte: artistic soccer, used to refer to a particularly Brazilian way of playing.

  Havaianas: a brand of plastic flip-flop sandals that are ubiquitous in Brazil.

  Imagina na Copa: “Imagine during the Cup.”

  Jeitinho: a flexible approach to situations, held as quintessentially Brazilian, which bends the rules without breaking them.

  Jogo bonito: “the beautiful game”; a reference to soccer.

  Jogo de cintura: literally,
a sway of the hips; it refers to being smooth, agile in interpersonal dealings.

  Lanchonete: fast-food place

  Mate: a tea that in Rio is often drunk ice-cold, with lemon and sugar. Beach vendors often carry twin tanks of tea and lemon and mix it at the customer’s request.

  Mensalão: an illegal campaign slush fund and a cash-for-congressional-votes scheme that broke out in 2005 and threatened to bring down Lula’s government. Its nickname, mensalão, or the big monthly, came from the regular kickbacks paid to legislators in exchange for their cooperation.

  Meu amor: “my love”; one of the many terms of endearment used even among strangers in Brazil.

  País do futebol: the country of soccer; an expression used to refer to Brazil.

  Porteiro: doorman

  Querida/querido: “my dear” or “ my darling”; common term of endearment.