Gangster violence plunges Sao Paulo into chaos

[melnjones]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-16T002516Z_01_N15336253_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRAZIL-CRIME-ATTACKS.xml&pageNumber=2&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2

My best friend is scheduled to move to Sao Paulo the end of the month and be there for 3 years, so needless to say this scares the crap out of me. Say a few prayers.

on edit...will only be in Sao Paulo for a year, then in other part of Brazil.

[Tom Joad]

1. Read this. Mike Davis on the "Planet of Slums"

This is a direct result of globalization and the marginalization of millions of people.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=56&ItemID=10251

[Blue_Tires]

3. very interesting insight n/t

[High Plains]

2. And drug prohibition.

These Brazilian "commands" are essentially drug-trafficking organizations that have morphed into governments of sorts in the favelas (slums).

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Prison hostages have now been released

Some 200 prison guards and visitors held taken hostage over the weekend have now been released.

The uprisings that struck some 70 prisons across the state and were reported in prisons in some neighbouring states are now said to have been quelled.
...
Founded in 1993, the PCC has been involved in drugs and arms trafficking, kidnappings, bank robberies, and prison breaks and rebellions, police say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4984838.stm

It doesn't sound like much of a 'government' to me - it's simple organised crime.