Note: The following post is a quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1642168/posts
The Mafia's Shadow Kingdom: Across Latin America, governments capitulate to gangsters
spiegel ^ | May 22, 2006, 04:09 PM | Jens Glüsing in Rio de Janeiro
Posted on 06/01/2006 11:56:40 PM PDT by dennisw
Recent violence in Sao Paulo may just be the tip of the iceberg: Many parts of Brazil and indeed across Latin America, governments have capitulated to gangsters, and the rise of organized crime could end the recent leftward shift across Latin America.
Garbage containers block the road into slum district Vigario Geral, one of the most dangerous favelas in Rio de Janeiro. A visitor approaches the barricade, two youths appear from the shadow of a nearby building. They're carrying machine guns, and handguns are tucked into their pants. "You want to go to church, right?" the older of the two asks the stranger politely. "We'll take you there -- we're registered."
A boy rolls the containers aside. The youths deposit their Kalashnikov rifles on the backseat of a taxi and direct the driver through the labyrinthine streets. Father Marco Freitas receives his guest in front of the congregation room of Assembleia de Deus, Protestant sect. The priest knows the two youths: "They respect me; they often come to the service. It's only during police raids that things get dangerous."
But police raids rarely occur. "We're usually warned in advance," the youths point out. They escort the visitor back to the highway onramp and say goodbye. This is where their territory ends and the Brazil of law and order begins -- the Brazil of "asphalt," as the drug mafia calls it.
The slum Vigario Geral is part of a shadowy kingdom of drug gangs and their heavily armed footmen. The territory isn't marked on any map. Paramilitary gangsters control most of Rio's roughly 700 favelas. They've built a parallel government -- like the ones in Sao Paulo prisons, the slums of Caracas and Medellin, and the streets of Acapulco and Mexico City.
Organized crime is on the rise across Latin America.
(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1642075/posts
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Sweetness & Light ^ | June 1, 2006 | N/A
Posted on 06/01/2006 6:44:37 PM PDT by Sam Hill
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1642134/posts
"Haditha: Blood Money, Lies and Videotape?"
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