The pacification of Favel

Like Russia, Brazil will accept two sports megasis in the coming years: the 2014 Football Championship and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Brazilians began preparations for them in their own way: the first thing they declared a war of organized crime, the focus of which were the famous Favels Rio

Soon only memories will remain from Favel Rio

The February Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and this year attracted many world celebrities. Some of them had not only tourist, but also business interest. 26-year-old American actress Megan Fox, the star of "Transformers", for example, advertised the local Brahma Beer beer. The star of the reality show Kim Kardashian starred with might and main against the backdrop of tanned mulatto-for her next project. But Monica Bellucci and her husband, the French actor Vincent Kassel, was examined by one of the local Favel - Vidigal, from where an exciting view of the ocean opens, and one of the main attractions of Rio, the two -humped hill of Morro Dois IRMP, which, like the statue of Christ, is present on all postcards. As it turned out, the interest of a star couple is connected with the desire to settle here forever.

Poetry of places change

Police and the military used to be infrequent guests in the labyrinths of Favel

The fact that she and her husband are going to move from Paris to Rio, Bellucci told Brazilian Vogue. (Then the news distributed to the whole world the English Independent.) Of course, the main question of the interviewer Vogue was: are the actors going to leave France like Gerard Depardieu because of the dragon taxes of Francois Hollande? It turns out that it is not at all therefore, besides, the actress spends most of the time not in Paris, but in Milan. According to Bellucci, she fell in love with Brazil 18 years ago. “I want to live next to the sea,” she said. - My house is here on the coast. Of course, there are problems in any country, but I really like how you, Brazilians, react to your own poetically. ”

Perhaps the actress is not cunning: the matter is really not in taxes, but in poetry, because she and her husband and intend to buy a house on the beach. And is it so important that their dwelling will border on one of the most famous Favel Rio, where, as the locals assure, bandits and drug dealers still rule. Poetry!

But Favel Vidigal, despite numerous dangers, attracts more foreigners than white poles near Moscow, where the house for Gerard Depardieu is already supposedly built. And they, these visitors, are not at all poor. California, an IT expert in the field of Anvara Boyce, for example, attracted the famous People’s Theater, which was created with the participation of the largest Brazilian oil company Petrobras. The theater troupe of Nós Dos Morro (“We from the Hill”) became famous throughout the world after many of its actors played in the film “City of God” (City of God) of joint Brazilian-French production. The picture with a budget of $ 3 million raised over $ 27 million in the world, and after all, not professional actors played at all.

After this premiere in Favel, eminent foreigners were frequent, but in such quantities that the authorities were forced to urgently build a fashionable Seraton hotel.

Live and die on a hill

Brazilians say they have two Rio. One with its stunning beauty of sandy beaches, long -legged models, gracefully pacing along the embankment along the world -famous capacabans, surf lovers, conquering emerald waves, hundreds of restaurants and music everywhere.

But all this at the foot of the hills. And on their slopes pulls the wagon half -dead, barely rearranging the legs of a horse, stuck to each other at home with scraps of electric wires - light, for which no one pays for a long time, has long been disconnected, on the streets are the lamps of the sewage system, and the widespread stench is from them.

The drug dealers from the local organized group Amigos Dos Amigos (“Friends of Friends”) who control many Favels have an ominous ritual. On those who are dissatisfied with them, they throw car tires and set them on fire. A person cannot get rid of them and burns alive. In the language of bandits, this is called "to heat in the microwave."

Repair of buildings and conducting electricity is one of the primary tasks

When in 2009 the 2016 Olympic Games 2016 were announced in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazil authorities released the ambitious plans for the construction of modern sports facilities, museums, metro lines, and the full modernization of the local port. But the main question that was facing them: what to do with almost one thousand Favel, which densely shook Rio? In 2010 alone, 4798 murders were committed in them-a huge figure for a 6 millionth city (for comparison: in the United States, about 300 million people per year, about 20 thousand murders).

Students of the school, located next to the stadium at the foot of one of the hills where the Olympic Games should take place, more recently heard the cries of people who were killed by drug dealers and robbers in the zone of their control. I had to cover my ears. And nearby the Olympic pool became unusable - the bandits, under pain of death, banned water to pour into it.

Here with this Rio, about which you can’t read in advertising booklets, and you had to do something. Moreover, Mundial was added to the Olympic Games - the World Cup, which will be held in 2014.

Some three years ago, it seemed that to pacify the Faveli Rio, in which 1.3 million people live, and to expel the home-grown “Don Corleone” from them-the mission is impossible.

New life

Brazilian youth

"Big Cleaning" began at the turn of 2008-2009. Its first phase, as expected, was a massive operation of the special battalions under the cover of dozens of armored personnel carriers and helicopters. In Favels, Vidigal and Rosinha could make a film on Hollywood patterns - what was happening here, fit into the “strong nut” format. The proprietation of the drug mafia was frenzied, she knew: the loss would mean the final loss of control over the territory. Dozens of special forces died on the hills of Rio. But gradually equipped with the latest technology, elite fighters expanded the bridgehead. The liberators were given the name UPP - the abbreviation from the Portuguese "police units of pacification."

By the fall of 2011, in 68 settlements on the hills of Rio were located on a permanent basis 17 UPP. Hundreds of drug dealers and ordinary street robbers were detained. The number of serious crimes - murders and armed robberies sharply went down. The largest police department found the refuge just in Favel “City of God”, where the famous film was shot. Fael residents were just happy. “I have been living here for 43 years, and I have never been as good as now,” the local resident Enis Malt admits. - Before it was not life. You could not stick your head out of your Konura. The gangs drove along the street and shot everything that was moving from the machine guns. And now my children can calmly play football on the street! ”

Children Favel

The authorities of Rio de Janeiro spent $ 1.5 billion on the fight against organized crime in Favels. But, of course, it would be impossible to defeat the mafia with one force. In parallel with the placement of police posts, gigantic work was carried out on the repair of houses, laying sewer pipes. The program “Light” gained a special sound, during which electricity was held in tens of thousands of houses.

Among other things, the Failers Rio gained a geographical framework - for the first time in the history of their names, they indicated on the maps of the city. And as soon as new cards appeared, more tourists reached out here and tours to the “pacified Faveli Rio” began to be held. Numerous restaurants, bars and “landing” - hourly hotels for lovers of short -term love pleasures began to grow like mushrooms immediately after rain.

The owner of the restaurant Maze Bob Nadkarmi says that he opened his point in 2005 exclusively for "lovers of extreme relaxation." Now he complemented the restaurant with a bar, where musical evenings are regularly held, and a mini-hotel Bed and Breakfast. “People at first began to come here out of curiosity,” says Bob. - Previously, they only knew about violence and drug dealer in these places. Now they are accustomed to the fact that they will be treated with Frango a passarinho - fried chickens under pepper and parsley, give a drink, listen to music and dance samba, and all this with such a wonderful view of the ocean. No wonder nearby, in Santa Mart, Michael Jackson in 1996 recorded his only video clip in Brazil. ”

Hold the Olympics. Feed the people

Both the former Brazilian government of Lula and Silva, and the current, the Dilm Rusoff are proud that over the decade, they pulled out 10 million Brazilians from poverty, and from “extreme poverty” - 12 million. In 2010, the American magazine Time put Lula in first place among the most influential people in the world. For many of his ill -wishers - “Levaks”, a friend of Chavez and the Castro brothers, the former Brazilian leader managed, however, unlike the “brothers in the class”, to combine the accelerated economic modernization of the country with extensive social programs. And he did it that, according to the publishers of Time magazine, “Brazil entered the rank of“ First World ”, while the United States itself, in many respects, fell to the level of the Third World.

On the eve of the championship

The experience of pacing Favel Rio attracts people from many countries of the world. To get acquainted with the guys from UPP they go from Argentina, Salvador, Germany and the USA. “For many of our neighbors in the continent, the main problem in the fight against crime is that the local police are corrupt and people see only hostile“ occupation force, ”the expert of Stanford university (CC) Stephanie Stalberg, who prepared a vast study on this topic, notes in a conversation with The New Times. - We, in Rio, incredibly managed to overcome this centuries -old alienation. Probably, due to the fact that the police themselves, together with the residents, participate in the laying of cables and clean the streets. And hundreds of foreigners come to help us. ”

In some favelas, residents decided to paint the facades of their houses with different colors. So that on the hills, under the hands of the statues of the Savior, really happy and funny people live.

Brazilian budget for the 2014 World Cup-$ 3.3 billion, for holding the 2016 Olympic Games-$ 18 billion. The Olympics budget in Sochi-2014 already exceeded 950 billion rubles, although the amount was called three times less four years ago

Photos: Frederik Buyckx