Much of the Brazilian police force earn less than $600 a month, causing
frequent police strikes in many cities. The weakness of the police force,
combine with a judicial system that “is overwhelmed and vulnerable to
chronic corruption,” accounts for the failure of the government to deal with
criminal violence and drug-dealing organizations or militias which “have now
turned Rio and other cities into urban battlefields” (Arrow, 2002, 4). Indeed,
the police (together with firemen, civil servants, and private security guards)
are often accused of being involved in kidnapping rings, drug trafficking, and
other criminal activities. This situation, combined with the fact that the
favelas (slums) are largely occupied by “formally unemployed blacks and
immigrants from the poor northeast, makes efforts to improve living
conditions very difficult. Indeed, many of the favelas have “an alternative
government: offering food, basic services (such as garbage collection and
electricity) sports facilities, and protection in return for cooperation with the
illegal drug trade which employs an estimated 200,000 Brazilians (Lister,
2006; Reel, 2007).