Causone Media.

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

To watch Awaydays documentaries, go to YouTube dot com slash at away Days TV.

This is part two for Velo Government, Episode four.

This podcast is a production of H eleven Studio and.

Call his Own Media.

After speaking with Flows, the aspiring Rapper, we go for a walk around this area in the favela.

As we do, a small storm breaks out.

Rain showers from the clouds above and drenches everything.

The lush jungle and the harsh concrete of the favela turn the darkest shade with the rain.

We head up to the hills and cross a bridge over what is an open sewer duct.

Human waste and filth stream down the open cement, down the hill and to God knows where.

So this is the other side of the favela.

Basically, everything here, even down to the sewage, is all makeshift.

The government doesn't have any presence here, so basic things are just not getting taken care of.

Everything that does happen is either down to the gang or down to the community.

And I guess the question is is that because the gangs are here, or is it because the government isn't here?

Who knows.

Unlike the state, CV does provide for the favelas, but it also rules them through lead and gold, violence and cash.

Perhaps then the favela government is not so different from the actual government.

After all, Brazil has one of the more corrupt political systems in the world.

Leadership talks up reforms and anti corruption, but it's mostly meaningless.

The police, the military, the justice system, even the health sector have all had recent scandals.

Trust in Brazil is at an all time low.

The number of Brazilians living in the favelas is growing, and the police units of the government sent in to pacify them have brought extortion and massacre.

The favela is truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

CEV continues to thrive under ground, controlling their turf and expanding their criminal enterprise from the favelas to the world.

Since we left the favela a year ago, at least two of the people we met there were killed before our documentary was even published.

One of the cell leaders we met, you'll remember his name as Fat Second.

He was shot dead by police in a shootout in the Favela one morning last summer.

Another lad we met, who didn't speak to us on the record but let us take photos, was also killed.

Information is sparse on him, but from what I've been told, he was killed by a rival gang.

He was just a teenager and a few months after we left, I spoke with Diogo from the loo to lever Jim.

That morning there was a heavy police incursion into Phalatvocateo.

I could hear the constant sound of near distant gunfire in the background as he told me about the situation.

It's all so bleak.

If you want to see the documentary made whilst reporting this, it's out now god to YouTube dot com slash at Away Days TV.

The documentary is called Favella government.

No.

Presented this podcast in a straightforward way, documenting my first hand perceptions of the favelas, the gangs, the people.

It's much easier for the listener that way when the media is presented in a podcast format.

But as I've mentioned, I was there with a small team my guys that I work with when making independent documentaries, either for Popular Front, Away Days or elsewhere.

So to end this part of the Away Days podcast, I wanted to speak to Louis Hollis.

He's an incredible documentary filmmaker and photographer.

He was the lad that was with me every step of the way in the favela and he has some interesting insights.

What was your first impression when we first went in there?

Maybe what I wasn't expecting was the almost the sense of separation.

And I think it was when we passed that first checkpoint, because we'd already been taken on motorbikes from a kind of lower point.

In the you know, the kind of entry point to the favela.

But it was going past that first checkpoint and realizing that, okay, this is These aren't like guys that just come out after dark or are sort of hiding.

It's kind of very out in the open and you're you're in their territory.

Now, it's like literally their territory, I suppose, just just the kind of maze like quality of a favela and how to an outsider it's it's it's kind of impregnable in a way.

Yeah, I realized, like like you like, once we're past a certain bit, it's like no one's coming.

Here to get you out, like you know what I mean?

It's crazy, Like it was easy to get in once we had the access and the permission, but without that you're getting shot.

You know what I mean, I could kind of I don't know about you, but I kind of felt that at one point, Like you know, when we're in the alleyway and the lad there's like, oh yeah, they call this alleyway the place where bullets fly.

I was like, oh.

Shit, Like you know, it kind of made me realize, like this is actually night and day compared to the city.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I think where I really realized was I think when we got to the kind of that little hillside moment of realization of the kind of level of control that these guys have over this area is when we came across their sort of wholesale drug supply area.

The sort of it was like a kind of you know.

Disused bus stop where they're all hanging out and they're just openly sawing you know, drug packages, hanging around with a whole array of weapons, and it'd probably be quite easy to surveil that if the police really wanted to.

The guys making no attempt to hide their activities.

Yeah, it was almost the opposite.

It was like they want you to see because I guess for them that's like letting all the people that need the drugs know that's the sale point, you know what I mean?

Yeah, definitely, and it's but there's no also no fear of any kind of you know, law enforcement or police being.

Anywhere near that are coming in.

You know.

I think the.

Sense we got is that if the police are coming in here, they're coming in shooting.

There's no there's no squad car that's going to roll around the corner.

It's like they this is CV territory.

Yeah, that's something that I like, I've seen it a few times in my work over the years, but there I could really feel this like matter of fact vibe where they saw themselves as like equal in terms of like violence and firepower.

It wasn't like, well, you know, we'll run away and maybe it was like no, no, like if they come up here with shooting them, you know what I mean, and they had the guns they had, Okay, they're not literally equal, but it felt to me as if they felt like, you know, it was one force against the other on equal footing.

I don't know about you, but do you get what I mean?

Definitely, I think it kind of it felt, you know, they had the sense of like, yeah, opposing armies or something.

It did not feel like it did not feel like they were scared at all.

And the kind of I don't know, that moment where that you know, there's that bit of gunfire that goes off in the distance, it's sort of it.

Felt so normalized to them.

I think hearing that, you know, they kind of leapt into action, I think, to go and check it out.

But it just felt like a lot of them didn't really bat an eyelid.

Yeah, it's sad how like normal the violence was.

And I think just before the gunfire went off and we had to like move, I don't know if you remember, but there was like all the lads were like showing us their guns like yo, I got an oozy, and like they had like a fucking kilo of drugs literally like wrapped in plastic.

At our feet.

And then if you look over, there's just like two young boys, maybe like eight nine years old, just watching the whole thing.

Man Like even in their faces you could tell like they weren't.

I don't feel like they were scared.

I feel like they were just curious.

Yeah, you kind of see the kids because there were kids everywhere.

Yeah, you know, there was no sort of like you know, shield the kids away from this.

It's like they're just like they're like soldiers patrolling, you know, patrolling the streets or like you know, armed police.

That's in a way, but you know, kids in flip flops, which very expensive as all rifle.

You kind of got a sense of the pipeline of kids going into that world as well.

It didn't seem like, you know, the.

Kids necessarily not trying to be kept separate.

It felt like a kind of multi You could see like almost the different generations in the gang all working together in that drug erf.

It felt like, you know, it's like imagine your hometown and you and all your mates are in the gang, but then your dad and all his generation are in the same gangs.

Yeah, I do you know what, I didn't even think about that, And you're right, because I don't know if you remember.

But like after the gunfire and like it chilled out, we went back to that like kind of dealers spot and there was that young lad in the ballet clava and you had a hat on and he was wearing all the camo and like I think he wanted us to Like he was like, oh, I want to talk.

But then when he realized, like we're not giving he wanted money, do you remember, and then we're like we're paying people to speak.

At that point he was like I don't want to talk then.

But like that guy was like what like sixteen seventeen maybe so young?

So young?

I mean him, Yeah, he sticks out to me.

And also the kid, you know, the one who we passed on the sort of CV checkpoint, and that really stuck with me.

I think you've got this kid, she's kind of.

You know, his his day to day job is basically sitting over one of the most idyllic views probably of Rio.

Yeah, and you know he's got a pistol in his back, you know, in his waistband and a walkie talkie and he's he's kind of I don't know, he's I guess in his art, you know what what's going through his head?

What's what's his sort of.

I don't know, how does he see his what's he thinking about his trajectory?

The worry is that his future is death.

I mean, if you look at that lad that we were just talking about, the wanted money he's dead.

He's been shot and killed like since like a couple months after we left, Like there was some kind of gang shootout and he got shot by like another gang, the guy calling himself Fat Sexy.

He's been shot dead by the cops since.

Like it's fucking crazy.

Yeah, And I think maybe, you know, the fact that it was quite while we then would maybe make you think that it's maybe it's kind of once in a while that something happens.

But clearly this, you know, these guys are ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Yeah.

I messaged Diogo, like the guy from the Luta leave Rey gym, and he was like sending me a voice note and there's just like gunfire in the background, and he was like, oh yeah, there's like the police are launching an operation today, like just blase, just like cure gunfire in the background, like the gang and the fucking police shooting each I was like, wow, like it's just crazy.

What did you make of him?

By the way, the Yogo.

He was the most interesting person we met.

I mean, he he kind of represented how complicated this whole story I think is definitely you know, he's working this guy who's lost his dad was a cop.

He's from the favela.

His dad was a cop.

You know, where does that then place him in the sort of you know, the kind of hierarchy had his dad not been killed.

But he's you.

Know, experienced losing his dad at a young age and could have gone his life could have gone in any direction.

But he's he's here working in this gang belt built sports center, trying to give kids a sort of positive outlet.

It's crazy, man, And yeah.

He just instantly got a sense of like a really good guy and someone who's you know, been through a lot, but it has you know, he's he knows, he knows he's trying to do.

You know, you could see a guy with a kind of a bit of a mission.

Definitely, Yeah, you can see it.

Like he know, he didn't say it.

I kind of felt this vibe of like he's defiant against everyone, like he will do what he's got to do.

You know.

I don't know about you, Lou, but I felt a little bit like when we were interviewing him, he was kind of obviously he can't say anything negative about the gang, but I felt he was a little bit uncomfortable maybe like it's like he kind of without saying it.

I feel like he was almost kind of like, yeah, you know, these people are hard to deal with, but I deal with it, you know what I mean, Like it didn't seem like he was like, oh, no, they're great.

I got some kind of vibe.

I don't know about you.

Yeah, exactly.

He's you know, I think they are ultimately the law in this, in this, but you know, in filout fogato, and you don't know what the repercussions are for speaking out against CV publicly, and you know, I can imagine, I can imagine it's probably.

Not good.

Yeah, he wasn't.

He wasn't kind of singing the gang's praises.

I think I.

Think he probably perhaps represented the views of a lot of you know, people who maybe from the favella but wouldn't mind living somewhere else, or you know that they can't that it's CV is not a way of life for them.

Yeah, they live in the favela and that's you know, that's that's the reality, and they're trying to make the best of it.

The one thing I didn't see though, and maybe it was just that specific favella we're in.

I mean, it's a very big Favella is a lot going on.

But I didn't get the sense that people were necessarily like day to day scared, like you know, little kids were like looking around.

They didn't even flinch, like nobody even like every civilian was just like I didn't even feel like they were overcompensated.

They were just like, huh, like whatever, you know what I mean.

I don't know, did you feel like anyone was actually scared there.

I mean, I'm sure they're scared of what could happen to them if they crossed the gang we all know.

But I didn't get the feeling that everybody there was on tender hawks.

I don't know about you.

No, I know, I didn't think I either, and I didn't.

I didn't know.

I didn't sense that at all in Jogo at the gym, No.

Yeah, it just yeah, it's just like a kind of a kind of resignation.

This is life, Yeah, much in any other you.

Know, if you live in a country with a government or you know, or you don't like you what can you do.

I think it seemed, yeah, it didn't seem it didn't seem to be like a tension between CV and the people of the Favella, and I think maybe that speaks to how kind of ingrained they are there and how many people are involved in it.

In one way or another.

But it yeah, it's it's they're not going anywhere.

Was there anything that really surprised you, Maybe you had like a preconception or whatever that surprised you or what.

You know.

What was interesting actually was I remember asking.

The guy in our film he's known as Players, Yeah, and I wasn't expecting his answer, but I said, you know, do you know people in these rival areas?

Because all the time we were there, they would point out, they'd say, that's CV over there, and that's our rivals.

You know, fuck them basically.

But I remember we were sat eating some food and said, you know, do you know does you know anyone in these areas?

And he said, yeah, I went to school with quite a few of these guys and we sort of, you know, if I see them in a neutral area, he said, you know, we'll shake hands, but we're still rivals at war.

And again, it's so it's the kind of absurd answer in a way, isn't it.

I totally forgot about that, and that is actually such an interesting point.

Yeah, I forgot about that.

I remember him saying it.

I was thinking, what the fuck, Like, if you see he's like, yeah, if they're in our part of Avella, like he's going to shoot them, But if he sees them in a neutral area, they shake hands.

Like that's that man.

Yeah, it's sad, and it's you know again, it's almost like it's like they don't know anything else apart from these rivalries and this kind of constant state of war.

It's kind of like it's just a factor of life that yeah, we're friends, but he's also my enemy.

Yeah, and he said something really good as well.

He was like, this is a war that is going to go on until the end of time.

And like, after being there, I kind of believe that, like I don't see how you could possibly end it or solve it, you know, Like I just I'm sure maybe maybe I'm just you know, like being a bit negative, but I'm sure there's like there's a line where you go past after a certain amount of time and insurgency and violence and government corruption and whatever.

I just cannot imagine any way to change what is going on there.

No, I mean not without either the cooperation of the gang with the government.

Which would never happen.

Yeah, there's just no trust there whatsoever, or you know, some kind of enormous operation on the police part to eradicate CV, which you know, it's just never it's never going to happen, is it.

You know.

I think it's kind of like the Dyers cast.

Almost like they just sort of perhaps the government just thinks, well, it's not worth our time to try and change these areas.

I think so.

And I think as well the fact that you just don't see any like there's no presence of the state there.

It would cost the government so much money to then start caring about these areas.

It's like another country almost.

Absolutely.

Yeah, Yeah, and that's what that's what it felt like.

It felt like you've got it's just it's like a mini sort of state within a state.

And yes, they're all Brazilians and they go into Rio, but it's they come and it's like they live in a different country and they sort of have to.

They're just left to their own devices.

And I guess that's the sort of the question you're asking in the film is like is this because of CV or is this because of the absence of our CV?

Because the government's not here.

I don't know about that.

Still, what do you reckon?

Oh, it's so it's hard to say it's I mean, you'd have to you'd have to sort of wind the back, wouldn't you.

I think it's clearly they've always been.

I don't think it's these novelas were never sort of affluent areas or it's not like I once working class area that has since declined like you might see in America or something.

I think it's these.

Have always been the sort of poorest sections of society in Brazil, and you know where they were they ever really about.

I don't know.

I wouldn't say, I'm no.

I think I think that's a good point.

It's not like it's not like they can go back to a different way.

It was always like this, you know.

It was just the people were like, right, get out of the way from the government, like go there, and that's that.

It's it's crazy.

One thing that made me laugh actually, on a brighter note, before we went out there, the kind of online idea is that everybody in CV territory wears Nike and everybody in the other gang where it's added ass right, And I remember saying to you like Louis, bring nikes, don't wear any added ass.

Day When we get there, the main guy is wearing added ass, and uh, I was like what the fuck?

And at one point I got Chiago to ask one of them like about that, and he was like, nah, it's just some fucking myth.

I was like, wow, Like you go online and like everywhere says that that's how it is, and maybe.

It was like fifty years ago.

I don't know, but yeah, it was so funny to see like loads of added ass and like online it's like, yeah, if you wear ed ass and the favela in the wrong gang, you might get killed.

And then no one gave a shit about it anything like that.

Man, it's very funny.

Well, you and me going in there and full night must have looked like a sort of throwbacks.

Probably yeah, they must have thought what are these idiot gringo is doing?

And in my head I was like, oh, like, we we're really fit and.

We aren't gonna get shot.

And then in reality they're probably just like what the fuck is wrong with these guys?

But yeah, man, I don't know.

I think if we've been wearing the wrong football shirts, I get the impression we might have been in trouble.

But yeah, yeah, they love the football there.

That was what was there?

What was the flamenco?

Yeah yeah, really cool.

All right, Thank thanks so much, man, that's been really great.

I really wanted to just get your kind of perspective on it.

Man.

I appreciate it, my pleasure.

It was an incredible experience.

So as I said, the last time we were in the favelas was about a year ago.

What's been happening recently, Well, over the last three months, crime in Rio's favelas has flared at big time.

Clashes between drugs, gangs and the police, as well as increasing pressure from the vigilanti militias, are kicking things off in a very violent way.

One of the biggest events happened in June, when Rio's civil police carried out a massive operation in the so called Israel Complex, an area controlled by the Pure Third Command faction.

The raid followed a long investigation and led to almost a dozen arrests and the seizure of many rifles, but it didn't come without the usual chaos.

Stray bullets hit a bus driver and a passenger in separate incidents downtown amidst a gunfight.

Video footage from this event showed average civilians diving for cover along busy roads out in the street in the middle of the day.

Just a few weeks earlier, in May, another big raid took place in the Mare Complex, another hotbed of gang activity.

This time the target was Chiago the Silver Folly, the alleged top boss of previously mentioned Pure Third Command.

He was killed in a shootout along with two other of his henchmen.

Folly had a massive rap sheet, nearly two hundred and thirty charges and over a dozen active arrest warrants.

His death was a major moment in the states ongoing effort to crack down on armed gangs, with one of the governors insisting that the government won't back down in the face of organized crime, even though many of them are involved with it.

Naturally, these raids brought serious disruption.

Roads were shut, schools were closed, and people living nearby were once again caught in the middle of the crossfire.

Interestingly, though it was all this was going on, Brazil's Supreme Court has been looking into a case that restricts police from carrying out raids in favelas unless absolutely necessary.

It originally came into force during the pandemic, trying to stop the increasingly aggressive police in that often left many civilians dead and still does.

But even with these limits, police raids haven't exactly slowed down.

Over four thy six hundred were carried out between mid twenty twenty and early twenty twenty five, even with these proposed restrictions.

One recent operation in Villa Kennedy led to school closures and even health services being suspended because of the sheer level of violence in the streets.

Again, the civilians pay the price.

At the same time, residents are still living under the control of rival criminal groups.

One side, you've got the major gangs that we've spoken about in this series.

They enforced their own rules in many of the favelas, and on the other there are the militias made up of the ex cops, maybe serving cops, military even firemen.

These are acts like private armies, offering up so called protection while running their own extortion rackets.

In many cases, it's actually these groups, not the police, the government or the gangs, who are setting curfews and dictate who operates what businesses.

They decide who stays who goes.

They're the ones pushing their heavy taxes on a lot of the people there in the forvelas.

As you can imagine, all of this takes a toll.

Schools are constantly shot when the violence breaks out.

Residents, especially children, are living with the constant risk of getting caught in the crossfire, and studies show that nearly half of favela residents have heard gunfire recently.

Many are suffering mentally because of it, with PTSD and various other undiagnosed issues.

Now remember this where you listen to the podcast.

For most people living there in the forvelas, the fights between the gangs, the militias and the police is not some abstract thing.

It's right outside at their front door.

To really drive that horm After listening to this chapter of the Away Days podcast, I want to leave you with a few more details on the Falete Foggetero massacre we touched on in an earlier episode.

Quote back in February twenty nineteen, the Palette Fogetero favela in central Rio was the site of one of the deadliest and most controversial police raids in recent memory.

Official reports said thirteen people were killed, but some local accounts claimed up to fifteen.

The operation was carried out by Rio's elite military police units BOPE and the Shot Battalion as part of a crackdown on drugs gangs in the area, but what actually happened that day has been heavily disputed ever since.

Residents say the police didn't arrive in an active shootout.

According to many eyewitnesses, the victims had already surrendered or were unarmed when they were killed.

Were reportedly executed at point blank range inside their houses.

Several bodies were shot in the back, suggesting they were fleeing or had already given up.

One particularly disturbing claim is that police dragged bodies away and dumped them in nearby hospitals, a tactic that human rights organizations say is sometimes used to tample with evidence and make it harder to investigate the actual cause of death.

Groups like Human Rights Watch and local watchdogs raised serious red flags about how the operation was handled.

Photos showed blood soaked mattresses, bullet holes in walls, and signs that crime scenes have been disturbed.

There were accusations that the police messed with the locations of the bodies and gave false reports.

Families of the victims were left devastated and furious, saying there were poor young men, many of whom had no criminal records, and were killed in cold blood.

Despite all of this, the investigation moved painfully slow for.

Months, nothing really happened.

Then, in twenty twenty, Rio's public prosecutors officially recommended closing the case.

They argued that the police had acted lawfully and were justified in their use of lethal force.

This decision was slammed by human rights groups, who called it a whitewash and said it sent the message that police can kill in the favelas with no consequences.

To this day, no officers have been charged or held accountable for the Flete Foggtero massacre.

The families are still fighting for justice, but the case is pretty much vanished from the news.

For many people in Rio's favelas, it was just another example of how the system turns a blind eye when poor black favela communities are on the receiving end of police violence.

End the quote.

Next week, it's the third and final chapter of Await Days podcast.

We'll take you on the ground amidst the new generation of Japan's illegal street racers.

They like to go very very first, you've been listening to the Away Days podcast.

To watch independent Away Days documentaries, subscribe to our channel at YouTube dot com slash at away Days TV.

Your Wait Days podcast is a production of H eleven Studio for Cool Zone Media.

Reporting, producing, writing, editing and research by me Jake Hanrahan, co producing by Sophy Lichtormin.

Music by Sam Black and in this episode, Diamondstein mixed by splicing block.

Photography by Johnny Pickup and Louis Hollis.

Graphic design by Laura Adamson and Casey Highfield.