Presents an urban tale of survival, which illustrates two versions of active, organized, aggressive participation in the political process. This book analyzes the favela's different responses to the popular movement that confronted the military in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

"Favelas, or shantytowns, are where cocaine is mainly sold in Rio de Janeiro. There are some six hundred "favelas in the city and most of them are controlled by well-organized and heavily armed drug gangs. The struggle for the massive profits from this drug trade has resulted in what are increasingly violent and deadly confrontations between rival drug gangs and a corrupt and brutal police force, that have transformed parts of the city into a war-zone. "Lucia tells the story of one woman who was once intimately involved with drug gang life in Rio throughout the 1990s. Through a series of...

"Favelas, or shantytowns, are where cocaine is mainly sold in Rio de Janeiro. There are some six hundred "favelas in the city and most of them are controlled by well-organized and heavily armed drug gangs. The struggle for the massive profits from this drug trade has resulted in what are increasingly violent and deadly confrontations between rival drug gangs and a corrupt and brutal police force, that have transformed parts of the city into a war-zone. "Lucia tells the story of one woman who was once intimately involved with drug gang life in Rio throughout the 1990s. Through a series of...

In the 1980s a poor farmer's son from Recife, Brazil, joined the Brazilian navy and began selling cocaine. After his arrest in Rio de Janeiro he spent the next eight years in prison, where he joined the Comando Vermelho criminal faction and eventually became one of its leaders. Robert Gay tells this young man's dramatic and captivating story in Bruno. In his shockingly candid interviews with Gay, Bruno provides many insights into the criminal world in which he lived: details of day-to-day prison life; the inner workings of the Brazilian drug trade; the structure of criminal factions;...

In the 1980s a poor farmer's son from Recife, Brazil, joined the Brazilian navy and began selling cocaine. After his arrest in Rio de Janeiro he spent the next eight years in prison, where he joined the Comando Vermelho criminal faction and eventually became one of its leaders. Robert Gay tells this young man's dramatic and captivating story in Bruno. In his shockingly candid interviews with Gay, Bruno provides many insights into the criminal world in which he lived: details of day-to-day prison life; the inner workings of the Brazilian drug trade; the structure of criminal factions;...