Brazil: War on Children is a journey through the underworld of Brazil's ten million street children. The author interweaves first-hand reportage, interviews and statistics to paint a picture of life for the children. He discovers a world of pimps, muggers, prostitutes and petty criminals; homeless children who live in fear of sudden death at the hands of the off-duty police and other vigilantes who make up Brazil's death squads.

Dimenstein interviews the Church workers who risk becoming death squad targets themselves by befriending the children and trying to bring them...

-They would have to kill us all to destroy our movement and they can't. I don't get that cold feeling anymore. I am no longer afraid of dying.--Chico Mendes, November 1988 Chico Mendes, the charismatic founder of the Brazilian rubber tappers union, was murdered by a hired assassin on 22 December 1988. As a trade union leader, he won international acclaim for his role in the non-violent campaign to protect the Amazon rainforest, on which the rubber tappers depend for their livelihood. In Fight for the Forest, Chico Mendes talks of his life's work in his last major interview conducted...