"On the first Tuesday of each month, a military police pick-up and 3 patrol cars leave Suburbana Ave., in Rio de Janeiro, where the Narcotics Division's headquarters are located." "They come to this junkyard in Caju." "The convoy transports drugs confiscated during that month." "The amount may vary between 20O kilos and 3 or 4 tons." "In less than 2 hours, everythingwill be incinerated in a high temperature oven." "The rise in drug dealing after the mid 198Os is responsible for a sharp rise in the numberof homicides." "One person dies every half-hour in Rio de Janeiro, 90% shot by large caliber guns." "Federal Police estimates that, today,drug trafficking employs 1OO,OOO people in Rio." "It's the same numberof people the city has in its payroll." "Not all of them live in the slums, called"favelas", but police action is focused mainly concentrated in these areas." "This program, filmed during 1997 and 1998, listened to the people closely involved in the confrontation:" "the policeman, the drug dealer, and,caught in the crossfire, the dweller." ""NEWS FROM A PERSONAL WAR"" "THE POLICEMAN" "CAP." "PIMENTEL" " SPECIAL POLICE OPERATIONS BATTALION-BOPE" "When you are 5 or 6 years old, you wanna be policemen." "Then, we change our mind." "I never did." "I always wanted to be a policeman." "Sometimes, I arrive here in the morning, put on my uniform, and I feel invincible." "I feel like going into the favela." "Sometimes,I get here in the morning and I'm scared." "But I always wanted the opportunity to be in a real combat operation." "I ended up being in hundreds of them." "Maybe I wouldn't have that opportunity in the armed forces." "Do you miss never having been in a war?" "I am in a war." "I'm in the middle of a war." "The only difference is that I get to go home everyday." "THE DEALER" "There's no way to invade Bairro do Jockey" "We'll have fun with the cops" "Because,at Jockey I'll tell you how it goes" "Things are hard even forthe "narcs"" "To climb the Jockey even the BOPE shakes" "The police have a hard time Just like the Feds I respect all bad criminals" "Now I'll show you how it goes at Bairro do Jockey" "FRANCISCO -16 YEARS OLD One holds an AR-15" "The other holds a 12-gauge" "There's anotherwith a pistol escorting the police pick-up" "This rap is cool l tell you this" "Who are those guys?" "They carry M-16s" "The cops are jerks They bring old guns" "Shoot twice and run out of here lf you don't bring a revolver" "Maybe you'll scream" "Bring a .50 or a .3O" "In general, we don't want anyone to suffer like I did when Iwas little." "I couId have been a poor person," "ADRIANO - 29 YEARS OLD but I wouldn't be running from the police." "I wouldn't have to live in the favela sometimes." "I couId've been holding a modest job, but I couId also have been living a better life." "I didn't have that chance." "If I steal, if I've everstolen anything, it wasn't to buy cocaine." "If I did it, the motivation was, first, to buy food." "I can't die of hunger." "Second, to help my family." "Third, to keep my appearance." "I don't think about doing bad things to people." "I don't think about being mean to people." "I think about living my life." "THE DWELLER" "lwake up at 2:" "3O a.m. every day." "I go to my job." "I deliver newspapers." "At 7 a.m., I have to rush back to take my two younger kids to school." "Then,I rush up the favela again to do my housework." "My son works at noon, so I have to be home." "He says:"Mom,iwant lunch." "Lunch must be ready. "" "Then,it's time to rush back down to pick up the little ones and run my girl to ballet school." "By then, the day is almost over." "It's time for dinner." "Everyone is tired." "Sometimes,I go to sleep at 1O p.m., when my husband comes home from work." "I have to give him dinner." "At 1O p.m., I go to sleep." "I collapse, really." "Then... lwake up at 2:" "3O a.m. This happens every day of the week." "Rain or shine,I have to get out of bed and face the day." "I'm content with this because I think of my kids' future." "I see a Iot of things happening to other kids." "and I hope these things never, ever, happen to my kids." "VALÉRIA HILDA'S DAUGHTER" "LUANDA JANETE'S DAUGHTER" "Luanda is the wind she is the sea" "She is Xangô 's daughter and lemanjá's granddaughter" "THE HOME OF LUANDA, JANETE AND ADÃO" "The drug traffic has a good and a bad side." "Because before there were dealers, the police entered the favela breaking down your door." "They'd come in and brake it all." "When these guns entered ourcommunity,because of the drugs, they forced the police to come in more cautiously." "They walk around in fear." "They walk around in fear." "They know the new generation..." "This might lead to death." "This new generation, this youth, is in a suicidal spirit." "They don't care if they'll die or kill." "They have no fear." "All they want to do is protect the community from this kind of violent police invasion." "It 's the good side of the guns." "Now, the negative side, the cruel side of the guns is that, when they come to collect a debt, from people down in the city or in our community, they don't care if that person is a minor or not." "If they can kill, cut the person up, and display the pieces as an example, to show that any mistake with them means death, they are capable of this." "THE BEGINNING 195O-198O" "NORTH SIDE" "The dealers were old people, old ladies." "Drug dealingwas not very intense." "Cocaine didn't use to get here back then." "There was only marijuana." "PAULO LINS" " WRITER Cocaine was a rich people's thing." "The poor didn't use it." "They would only touch marijuana." "There was a time,in the favela, when people who snorted coke were considered rich." "It was a status drug." "When it left the rich people's arena and reached the poor, things got more violent." "When it became lucrative, it got violent." "There was a Iot of money involved and too many people trying to sell it." "They had to establish their territory, to defend their selling point." "People have always died in the favela, but the press didn't take notice." "The morgue would pick up the body." "It was normal." "It happened within the favela." "It never got to here to the rich people's area." "The media discovered the violence when it left the favela, when kidnapping started, along with" "Comando VermeIho, drug trafficking, stray bullets." "There was a great transformation afterthe popularization of cocaine." "Then,stealing from your neighbor, stealing money in buses wouldn't take you anywhere." "The person wouldn't prosper." "There had to be some kind of unity, so everybody could make money." "There couldn't be this war in which blacks would kill blacks, the poorwould kill the poor." "The enemy, Iet 's put it this way, would be the middle class, the government, the businessmen, people from outside the favela environment." "This was born with the dictatorship." "It grew because of the political prisoners at IIha Grande." "They locked up 5 or 6 political prisoners with around 60 common prisoners thinking these 6O would dilute the 5." "It was the opposite." "Those 5 dominated the 6O others." "They froze the war by teaching them to form one command." "They organized crime." "CARLOS GREGÓRIO, "GORDO"" " THE FOUNDATION OF ORGANIZED CRIME" "If a political prisoner had a banana, he would share it." "If one could eat, everybody could eat too." "If 1O of us couldn't eat, nobody would eat." "That 's where the idea was born." "We began to think collectively." "We started to get organized inside the prison to fight the crimes committed against inmates by guards and by inmates who liked" "26th Pct ENCANTADO NEIGHBORHOOD to prey on other inmates." "The project was "Peace, Justice and Freedom"." "Peace: we wanted to live in peace inside the prison." "Justice: we wanted justice for all, a social justice." "The idea was to take all the holes left by the government and fill them with the Comando Vermelho." "What would it do?" "The idea was to do everything the government doesn't do." "Freedom: as everybody knows, is getting out of prison at any cost." "We're with Comando VermeIho." "KLEBER - 23 YEARS OLD Have you heard about it?" "talk about it." "It 's an organization of our own." "It 's organized crime." "On the streets, all we do is for our population, for our society." "We do it forour people, a suffering and humble people." "I was born in the favela." "I'd be lying if I said a resident doesn't help me once in a while." "I'd be lying if I said we don't help them." "We also help them." "This is an obligation we have." "If my daughter gets sick in the middle of the night, ...or I or Adão does..." "She's been helped many times." "Sometimes, I go to the drugstore." "I bring money to buy medicine, but it costs 3 times the amount I have." "then I go over to the dealers and say:" ""My daughter is sick." "I need to buy..."" "They say: "Where's the prescription?" "Give it to me."" "In a haIf-hour, her medicine is here." "We supply the needs they have once in a while." "Sometimes, they need butane gas, medicine." "They have to ask for our help." "Their shanty might be falling apart." "They ask us for some money to buy construction material, to buy cookies, to buy cigarettes even, toilet paper, soap." "When Christmas comes, they throw toys for us to catch." "You'd die to get one." "It 's a lie!" "I wouldn't wanna die!" "I think most people here are on the dealers' side." "If a dweller dies, we pay for the burial." "THE COMBAT" "On April 20,Iwas able to get early to headquarters." "1st MILITARY POLICE BATTALION lwas on the building's veranda" "GUN TRAINING RANGE lwas looking at the favelas." "I noticed the tracer rounds from one favela to the other." "It was a war between dealers, who were using tracer ammo." "I thought:" ""ln which othercapital in the world, which is not at war, can you see something like that?"" "Rio de Janeiro is not in a civil war." "There's a war in the favelas, between dealers and policemen, or between dealers and other dealers." "BOPE'S TRAINING FIELD" "FAVELA COMBAT DRILL" "During the last 6 months, 1OO°% of our missions were in favelas." "There were 156 operations involving confrontation and maybe the same number without confrontation." "During confrontations, we exchanged fire with heavily armed dealers." "We've acquired an experience in favela combat that can't be matched in Brazil." "This has made us one of the most efficient urban combat units in the world." "We are certainly better than any American soldier." "Ourconfrontations happen within 1O meters, 15 meters." "SOLDIER MILTON BOPE Our combat is real." "In the favela, there are very narrow alleys." "It's rare to find a spot where 2 shooters can work side by side." "The 1st man shoots kneeling down." "The second shoots over him, using his back as support." "Attention!" "Fire!" "If I see the police, I try to run." "If I can't, I shoot." "For instance, I'm here selling dope." "If I see the police, I try to escape." "If I can't,I'll shoot." "Iwon't let them shoot me first." "I'll get them first." "Iwon't let them hit me." "They'd kill me." "When we kill the enemy, we use fireworks." "We celebrate and everything." "We have a party." "It 's a victory." "Isn't that worth celebrating?" "To kill the enemy is a victory." "Terceiro Comando, for example." "As a minor, I escaped 14 times, just from one detention home called Padre Severino." "From another one, I escaped another 7 times." "When I turned 18, I was arrested by the 1Oth Precinct." "I stayed in jail for 9 months and escaped." "I was free for a month and got arrested again." "I stayed in jail for another 6 months and escaped again." "Then, I was arrested and sentenced to 9 years in prison." "They sent me to PoIinter," "Água Santa, and so on." "Then, I finally reached the top security prison in IIha Grande I could only achieve freedom by my own means, and God's help, this is by escaping again." "I escaped forthe 3rd time." "Iwas free foronly a month." "I was arrested again under other charges." "I went to jail and suffered all of that again." "I spent another 2 years or so in prison." "I was even angrier." "I wanted to loose my Iife." "I tried to regain my freedom and here I am, thank God." "What do you do when you are working?" "LICO - 13 YEARS OLD I watch for the cops." "Do you carry guns?" "What?" "Have you carried guns?" "Yes." "How about you?" "How far did you get in school?" "LEANDRO - 14 YEARS OLD I quit after the 3rd grade." "Can you read?" "Not really." "I get by." "How was your first mission?" "It was cool." "What did you do?" "I sold drugs." "My first mission was robbery on the streets." "What do you feel when you do that?" "I feel the desire to steal from the person." "Are you afraid you'II die young?" "What?" "Are you afraid you'II die young?" "We're all going to die someday, right?" "What makes a young person go into that?" "This generation, born in the favela, which is a third generation, wants to prove itself forthe entire city." "I think the organization offers that to them." "ITAMAR SILVA" " COMMUNITY LEADER It offers to the boy the respect he doesn't get when he chooses to be a delivery boy for a drugstore." "When he opens the paper and reads that,at a certain favela, a young man faced the police, armed and wearing a ski mask." "This feeds the pride, the power he believes he has over a society that doesn't recognize his true worth." "The heart beats stronger,right?" "POLICE HEADQUARTERS Somebody says he is a success" "HÉLIO LUZ CHIEF OF POLICE" " RIO "finally, one of us is somebody." "One of us can buy an expensive car." "One of us is able to have 5 women." "One of ourown made it in life."" "I felt like I was the king of the world." "When was that?" "At the favela when I held my first gun, I felt like that." "Was it a good feeling?" "Yeah, sort of..." "Women look at you." "They flirt with you." "Women,specially from down in the city, seem to be attracted by young men with heavy guns." "They go nuts!" "They enter even the poorest shacks to go to bed with them." "only men with guns are entitled to go out with city girls." "If you don't carry a gun..." "They don't even look at you." "They ignore you." "They are all blond and beautiful." "The bigger the gun, the more they want to get near them, the more they want to participate." "I don't starve." "My family doesn't starve." "I walk around with good clothes because, in this line of business you have to look good." "Which jeans do you wear?" "Toulon,Company." "T-shirt?" "TCK, cyclone," "TouIon or Company." "What kind of tennis shoe do you choose?" "I choose Nike." "Which one?" "Nike, Reebok." "If you had been born in the favela, what would you be today?" "What options would I have?" "If I got a job," "I would have to work 12 or 8 hours a day to make U$ 6O a month." "If I was to get into drug dealing," "I'd make U$ 15O a week." "So It 's a good deal." "Don't you think so?" "For anybody." "It 's not an option if you've never gone hungry." "But if you have, it 's a job." "For the social outcast, it is a good deal." "people line up to get a job." "You might say it's not a job, but it is." "It's not an option, it's a job." "They make more money then their fathers do." "They're suicidal." "He watches his brother die, his cousin die because they were involved, but he wants to get involved!" "Do you know why?" "Because nobody wants this meager salary anymore." "Drug dealing is a business, an illegal business." "They occupy an area left vacant by the government." "The government makes the favela an area for outcasts." "The minimal wage is U$ 6O a month?" "The drug dealers pay the kid U$ 15O a week and that kid goes to work for them." "They will choose it,of course." "PADRE SEVERINO INSTITUTE" " FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS 12 TO 18" "Hands." "Turn them." "Lift your arms." "Lift your balls." "Lift one leg." "Now, the other." "Turn around." "Open your hand." "Down." "Turn." "Open your mouth." "Get up." "Open your mouth." "Lift your tongue." "Hands towards the ground and down." "Get you clothes and come to this side." "FÁBIO - 16 YEARS OLD I was arrested because of marijuana." "Do you work for the dealers?" "No." "I just got in trouble." "Is this your first time in here?" "Where do you live?" "I Iive at Nova HoIanda." "VINÍCIUS - 17 YEARS OLD Who me?" "I was selling cocaine." "Do you work for [the dealers?" "No." "I got into this less than 3 days ago." "Where did you sell it?" "At Morrinho." "Is this your 1st time?" "NELSON 14 YEARS OLD Yes, sir." "Why were you arrested?" "I was stealing." "Where do you live?" "On the streets." "When you are 18 and have a clean rap sheet, will you stop?" "I intend to stay in the favela." "would you Iike to get a job?" "I want a job dealing drugs." "only dealing?" "I Iike the life." "Why did you get into this?" "I saw a Iot of suffering." "The police always wants to beat people up." "They have no respect." "They don't care if they come after the dealer and get the worker." "They can't do their job well." "LAW ENFORCEMENT" "MAURINHO 16 YEARS OLD The policemen arrested me." "They booked me and said they were going to kill me." "They shot me in the leg." "I was squatting down." "The policeman came and said: "Get up."" "He pointed at my leg and shot it." "MAURO 15 YEARS OLD When they get us, they take our money and give us trouble on top of it." "Everybody knows the biggest crooks are not the criminals, but the cops." "If a cop arrests me, for instance, he'II try to get money not to take me to jail." "He's not making only his salary." "If you had a good television set or a good VCR, they would take it away." "They wouldn't even ask if you had proof that you've bought it in a store." "They'd say that it was stolen, even when the owner was an honest person." "I'II say to myself The police are corrupt." "The institution was designed to be violent and corrupt." "And people think that's odd." "Why do I say it was designed that way?" "Because it was created to protect the State and the elite." "I practice law enforcement to protect and serve the status quo" "No beating around the bush." "It keeps the favela under control." "How do you keep 2 million people under control, people who make US$ 6O a month, when they make any?" "How do you keep all the underprivileged ...under control and calm?" "With with repression?" "Of course!" "How else would it be?" "When the policeman climbs up to the favela, he's prepared to be aggressive with everybody:" "old people, kids..." "Once, I was inside my home and the cop said:" ""Listen, I don't care if people are crippled, blind or old;" "I'II just beat the heck out of them." "And I don't want anyone to say anything."" "Sometimes, when a kid from the community is arrested, instead of going back down to take the kid to jail they climb the favela's hill even higher." "The women,mother,cousins, sisters,have to follow to stop anything from happening." "By then,everybody thinks the boy is facing some form of aggression oreven execution." "We follow them, we fight, we cry." "They push us around and ask us to step back." "We don't,because we know what will happen." "Then, we stick to them." "That way, they can't have a moment alone with the boy and nothing will happen to him." "They end upcoming down with the boy, taking him to the precinct to see if he's really guilty." "Sometimes,cops don't come to arrest." "They come to kill." "It's a political police." "This is an unfair society." "We are here to protect this unfair society." "The underprivileged is undercontrol." "He'll pay if he gets uncontrollable." "At the favela, things are very sophisticated." "In South Africa, they put up barbwire." "Here, we don't." ""Don't complain." "Pay yourtaxes."" "people are used to it." "They conform to it." "The poor have TV sets and watch them." "When the soap opera is over, they turn it off, and look at the favela" "What are they supposed to reproduce?" "There are not violent." "They stay inside." "They are so stupid they just stay inside." "When they do come out, they are told to go back, and they do." "I Iike to stay at the São Conrado Fashion mail's veranda." "Why?" "There's a country club and the largest favela in Rio side by side." "If this country was a violent place,how could that be?" "Would that be possible?" "This is a tranquil country." "The safety policy adopted is efficient." "Now, the question is:" "does the society want a police without corruption?" "It's easy." "I'm not speaking theoretically." "I've worked in the interior with squads of 3O men who wouldn't touch bribes." "The first 2 months were great." "The chief warden controlled the town's drug deal operation." "The town was in a state of panic." "We got there with 3O honest men." "We were cheered for 2 months." "On the 3rd. month, the supermarket owner's bodyguard slapped a kid who was stealing a bottle of liquor." "The kid and the bodyguard were arrested." "The supermarket owner said:" ""Sir, he is a thief."" "We said: "But the bodyguard can't hit a thief."" "They were both booked." "Then, social clubs wouldn't invite me anymore for the Wednesday night dinners." "They stopped doing that..." "Then, a rich farmer committed a murder." "He was booked." "End of story." "There was trouble." "What was seen as nice Was no more." "We pose a question to society:" "is there a real interest in an honest police?" "An honest police will act like in other countries." "You don't park in a forbidden area, because you'II get a ticket." "You don't drive through a red light or draw a graffiti." "You don't do anything wrong." "Let's say we operate both in the favela and in the rich neighborhoods." "people will have to stop sniffing coke at their chic parties." "There would be search warrants and doors getting kicked down at the beachfront condos." "Isn't that right?" "This is an honest police." "It doesn't have limits." "Will the society handle it?" "It 's people who can pay" "US$ 5OO for coke who are making our profit." "Most of them are from the upper class." "Poor people can't spend US$ 5OO in cocaine, because his kid will starve the next day." "Rich people spend it, because they can afford it." "The middle class supplies the money." "With that money, the dealers buy more guns." "It 's a vicious circle." "The middle class..." "The are also the enemy." "In a later date, they scream against the violence." "THE GUNS" "This is the armament BOPE utilizes to fight crime." "This is a German military rifle, HK 7.62." "It has been found with the dealers also." "This is a 9 mm HK submachine gun." "This is the most sophisticated submachine gun in the world." "We have a 5.7x28 caliber P-9O submachine gun." "We also have a 5.56 caliber MD-2 military rifle." "This is the same caliber as an AR-15, but it weighs almost twice as much." "This gun..." "The only police in the world using this gun is in Rio de Janeiro's." "In many occasions, this gun has saved our team." "It 's a gun you won't find on European or American policemen." "It 's a military gun, designed to give support under fire." "In Rio de Janeiro, it 's instrumental, because of the intense confrontations we have with dealers." "This is a .3O, made in brazil." "This is an AK-47, Russian." "This is a grenade launching AR-15." "American." "This is a 9 mm PT-92." "It has been made in israel." "Do policemen sell you guns?" "We don't sell them guns, but they..." "You know." "Sometimes, they come in a police pick-up, open the back, and tell us to choose." "But those are cops we know." "What kind of gun do you use?" "G-3, rifles," "CARLINHOS 16 YEARS OLD 9 mm pistols, .45," "PT, .38 caliber..." "It depends on the guns they give us." "Today,Rio de Janeiro dealers use AK-47, which is Russian, it's a guerrilla rifle." "They use AR-15, grenades, rocket launchers..." "Recently, we've noticed they're using night vision equipment, something even our platoon doesn't have." "POLICE WAREHOUSE FOR CONFISCATED WEAPONS" "When it comes to drug dealing, we must mention gun smuggling." "The profit from drugs and gun selling are related." "Look at the guns they make by the end of the century." "Why produce a rifle that shoots 7OO bullets a minute by the end of the century?" "Isn't the berlin wall down?" "What 's the issue?" "Are there frontiers to be drawn?" "There is no real interest in this." "Then, why do they make those?" "The gun made in Switzerland won't be sold in Libya, will it?" "If it's offered to the Ira, It won't be bought." "The Ira doesn't have Sig-Sauers." "We have modern armament that even Libya doesn't have." "The makers know that it comes to this country." "Why?" "Because they can sell it for the highest price." "OK, then." "We have to close gun factories in switzerland, in the US..." "colt is American, and the AR-15 is made by colt." "I want to close colt 's factory." "This is how they handle The drug war, and I thing it 's fair." "It should be the same for us." "They want to interfere In colombia." "They come into plantations, and they want to control production in colombia and in Peru." "I want to have control, to close colt, in the US, and Sig-Sauer, in switzerland." "What is the real issue?" "There are favelas with 1OO armed men." "They carry sophisticated armament." "The day they realize the status quo, and they decide to come down in an organized manner, they'II take over." "DISRUPTION" "The brains behind drug dealing and kidnapping are in prison." "They're all in prison." "ERNALDO MEDEIROS "UÊ" ARRESTED IN MARCH, 96" "About 15 men were arrested." "ROBERTINHO "DE LUCAS" ARRESTED IN JANUARY, 97" "They were gang leaders." "MARCIO NEPOMUCENO "VP" ARRESTED IN OCTOBER, 96" "JORGE LUÍS "DE ACARI" ARRESTED IN MARCH, 96" "All dealers that left prison died." "There are no powerful Comando VermeIho leader on the streets." "Who killed them?" "The criminals themselves." "Either them or the police." "The link between the prison and the community is over." "APOLINARIO DE SOUZA "NANAI" KILLED IN APRIL, 81." "People who lived the era" "KILLED IN MAY, 92." "they usually say:" ""It was born and died." "It lived forone minute."" "KILLED IN JUNE, 94." "Some people died in their first mission." "KILLED IN AUGUST, 87." "Others were arrested." "The whole thing fell apart." "It got all disorganized." "The consequence is that people dropped out of it." "Things changed a great deal and all that was left was the myth, the name Comando VermeIho." "Now, we have the frightening myth of the Comando Vermelho." "They tried to reorganize in prison." "It didn't work." "fortunately for us, it didn't work." "It didn't sparkle." "It went bad because they'd deviate from it, using drugs and so on." "I'm a criminal,all right!" "Why?" "Why?" "Because I Iike good things." "I was never into being oppressed by society." "There's no way society will oppress me." "What I have was not given to me by society." "I got on my own." "What did you get?" "With about 3 bank robberies, I got my own house, thank God, and some other things." "We don't want to take people's lives, we want our own money." "I won't work for US$ 5O a month." "My grandmother is over 7O years old." "She worked her whole life." "What did she get?" "She doesn't have anything." "What kind of society is this?" "I want a Mizuno tennis shoe." "It costs over US$ 1OO." "If I work, I'II never buy a Mizuno." "I'II rob money then." "I'm not scorning the workers, but I'II rob from people who have money." "They don't amount to nothing." "They are the tip of the system." "They're excluded from society." "When they're alive, they control all of that." "When they die, it 's over." "Jorge Luiz's son has no Guarantee that he'II become" "Acari's drug lord." "They don't even have that." "It's a retail operation." "A favela leader like UÊ is nothing but a retail manager." "He doesn't even know how to manage profits." "How is UÊ going to manage US$ 5 million?" "He's just the guy who handles the tent." "That 's all he is." "He handles 50 street market tents." "It 's basic, isn't it?" "No criminal got rich, bought land and stuff." "They don't stay on the media spot light either." "actually, if we analyze it, we'II see that the dealer sell drugs for a clientele in his own community." "Do you understand?" "Drug dealing doesn't bring any transformation dealers don't change anything, they are lost in the middle of the whole thing." "Their inconformity grows and fades in 24 hours." "It 's short-Iived." "If you check the history of either the Terceiro Comando or the Comando VermeIho, you'II see that neither had a social background." "They defend their own interests." "They don't have a political view of society." "They are like wild animals fighting to see who is stronger." "Drug dealing does not replace the State in the favela." "They might help people, but they don't have the structure to replace the State." "This is a lie." "There might be some kind of rudimentary structure." "They're stupid." "Uê stayed in 5-star hotels." "It 's stupid!" "Is there anything easier than catching Uê at a 5-star hotel?" "It 's stupid." "He could stay in a 3-star hotel and remain unnoticed." "He goes to a 5-star hotel." "We don't even have to ask who he is." "This is the deal." "It 's chaos." "We live in chaos here." "15-year-old kids have no idea of who is the leader." "One shoots the other." "It's a crazy situation." "Kids with Sig-Sauers,AR-15..." "CHAOS" "The dealer is escaping through the window!" "MANCHETE TV STOCKSHOT The police keeps shooting!" "There's another dealer trying to escape." "He's gonna jump!" "Look!" "You put the squeeze on this favela and they go to the next." "You go to the next, they move again." "It's an endless war." "Even if you go over..." "For 2 weeks, almost every night, the BOPE would kill a dealer over there." "It 'd confiscate a pistol or a rifle and kill a dealer." "Did it solve a thing?" "It didn't." "It didn't solve anything." "Forthe young people there..." "There are dozens of young men who are not part of it, but are waiting in line to get in on it." "Maybe, the new leader, because he's even younger..." "We have just witnessed the formation of the youth's organization, Comando Vermelho Jovem,CVJ." "Being younger, they are even more prone to violence." "If we have a shoot-out with the police, many times they back away and leave 1 or 2 soldiers behind." "If we get the soldier, we tie him up, beat him, shoot him, put him in a barrel and set fire to it." "When did you get into this life?" "When I was 11 years old." "What was your 1st mission?" "My first mission was to kill an informant." "At 11 years old..." "What did he do?" "What did you do?" "He told the police we pack cocaine and marijuana." "He told it to the "worms", the policemen." "Then, I set him on fire." "I got 7 car tires," "I mean, 7 truck tires." "I got 5 liters of gasoline." "I lit a match and set him on fire." "Who asked you to do that?" "It was my boss." "How did you feel after doing that?" "I felt normal, Iike I feel right now." "If I have to kill again, I'II do it." "When I kill?" "The only feeling I have is that I've fulfilled my duty." "If I say I got home and couldn't sleep, I'd be lying." "Have you ever killed a policeman?" "No, I haven't had that opportunity." "I stay on a roof at the top of the favela with a 9 mm pistol that has a laser beam." "I point the beam at their chest or head, and they run." "The beam marks the place where the bullet will enter." "If it 's on your forehead, the bullet will hit it." "I intend to go back on the streets and do it all over again." "This time it will be worst." "What will you do?" "I'II rob more banks, more armored cars." "I'II raise millions, and help the needy." "The police fights a personalwar." "If we kill a dealer, other dealers will hate the police." "They kill a policeman, and then we hate them." "It develops at that level." "The war is almost personal now." "JOÃO LUIS ALVES REFORM SCHOOL FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS 12 YEARS OLD AND UNDER" "All I know is that lwant to have a family." "lwant a new life." "My mothercouldn't raise my brothers and sisters" "ZINHO- 1O YEARS OLD because she was kind of nervous." "She couldn't raise them." "What did she do?" "She had the kids..." "I don't know what happened." "She sold her kids." "What did you do at the favela?" "I was a"fireworks kid"." "What does a"fireworks kid" do?" "I used to make money at the favela." "But what exactly does a"fireworks kid" do?" "When the "heat" came, I'd use fireworks." "It works just like an alarm." "people have time to hide." "The policemen did this." "I want money for this." "I don't see an end to it." "There's no light at the end of the tunnel." "I see no solution." "WEARINESS" "POLICEMAN ROGÉRIO DE OLIVEIRA SANTOS' BURIAL" "HE WAS KILLED FIGHTING DEALERS" "MINOR EDMAR DOS SANTOS' BURIAL" "HE WAS KILLED FIGHTING POLICEMEN" "JARDIM DA SAUDADE CEMETERY" "SÃO JOÃO BATISTA CEMETERY I lost many friends:" "Cidinho,Nininho, Orlando Jogador," "Dição,Siri..." "I lost a lot of people." "Sergeant Renato died here, at Morro da Mineira, in the middle of the night, shot in the head." "There's Lieutenant Vega," "Sergeant Brazuna..." "It will neverend." "The war will never end." "I'll lead this kind of life until I die." "Why?" "Because this is my destiny." "I made it my destiny." "If the problem of the drug trafficking is serious, the good guys have lost the war." "They have been at it for a Iong time, and accomplished nothing." "The only government agency that goes into the favela is the police." "The police alone is not going to solve anything." "I took over prisons with guns:" "machine guns, grenades, pistols, revolvers." "I attacked police stations and police cars." "What for?" "What history have lwritten?" "is crime history?" "No,it isn't." "I come home from a difficult mission, in which one of us has been shot," "in which a dealer was killed, our family doesn't even ask:" ""How was your day?" "How was the mission?" "What did you do?"" "They don't ask anything anymore." "I'm tired of this kind of work." "Ready!" "Aim!" "Fire!" ""PIMPOLHO" HOMELESS CHILD - 1981-1993" "HÉLIO DE SOUZA SANTOS METALWORKER - 1965-1993" "LIEUTENANT JOSÉ AREAS AZEVEDO JUNIOR - 1973-1997" ""FORMIGÃO" DEALER - 198O-1998" ""GAMBAZINHO" HOMELESS CHILD - 1977-1993" "LUÍS CLÁUDIO FELICIANO OFFICE WORKER - 1969-1993" "SOLDIER RONALDO ALVES DA CRUZ - 198O-1998" "THREE MONTHS AFTER THIS INTERVIEW, HÉLIO LUZ" "RESIGNED HIS POST AS CHIEF OF POLICE." "TODAY," "HE IS STATE REPRESENTATIVE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO." "ADRIANO WAS ARRESTED IN JANUARY 1999." "IN MARCH, HE ESCAPED ONCE MORE FROM PRISON" "AND WAS KILLED ON JUNE 22, 1999." "translated by FERNANDA GURGEL"