From: "Pauletta Otis" Subject: Argentina Rio: the city of cocaine and carnage Date: Thursday, October 14, 2004 6:16 PM Rio: the city of cocaine and carnage > > http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=571290 > > Rio: the city of cocaine and carnage > A drugs front line lies behind the famous Rio beaches, with dozens > murdered each week. Report by Tom Phillips and Thais Viallela > 12 October 2004 > > Sweltering in the Friday afternoon heat a 300-strong crowd are bringing > carnival to a suburban graveyard in Rio's west. The group is singing a > samba. Their king - one of Rio's most notorious drug traffickers - is > dead, his body riddled with 12 bullets. Huddled around the grave the > masses erupt into song, shouting: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Escadinha is our king." > > "I'm very proud of him," bellows Rosemar Encina, the wife of the > legendary Brazilian gangster. Outside five shots ring out in tribute to > the man deferentially known as "Seu Zé" (Lord Zé). > > Thirty-six hours earlier, José Carlos dos Reis Encina - better known as > "Escadinha" or Stepladder - had been driving to work, on day release > from prison. Without warning, a motorcycle swerved out in front of his > silver Vectra, one of its riders unloading several rifle shots into the > car. Within minutes a folk-hero of 20th-century Brazilian organised > crime lay splayed out on the busy road in a pool of blood. Vulture-like > onlookers surged around his corpse to get a view of the 49-year-old. > > Like the semi-fictional traficante Zé Pequeno from the award-winning > film City of God, Stepladder was at the head of Rio de Janeiro's cocaine > trade during the 1980s and was one of the masterminds behind Brazil's > largest drugs faction, the Comando Vermelho (Red Command). His death was > the final chapter in an action-packed life. > > He was thought to be behind a 1986 attempt to kidnap Princess Anne > during a visit to Brazil. But Stepladder quite literally made his name > with a breathtaking escape from the Ilha Grande prison, Rio's answer to > Alcatraz, on New Year's Eve 1985. In broad daylight, a helicopter > hijacked by Stepladder's partner in crime, "Fatty", swooped down and > scooped him up from the prison confines. > > Hours later he was back at the helm of the cocaine trade in the > Juramento slum. Flaunting his newfound freedom, Stepladder even took > part in carnival processions that year - dressed as a voluptuous woman. > > "He was always known for his adventurer's spirit," said Carlinhos Costa, > who was raised in the Rocinha slum at the height of Stepladder's reign. > > But on 23 September he wasn't so lucky. Shot several times in the head > at close range, Stepladder's body was barely recognisable as it lay on > the burning asphalt of Avenida Brasil. The king was dead. > > The murder punctuates an explosive month in Rio's 24/7 drug wars. > Favelas (slums) across the city are erupting in violence that often > matches the conflicts in Chechnya and Sudan for intensity, if not in > headline-grabbing power. > > With fierce turf wars igniting around Rio, many now fear the city is > staring into the abyss. Rio de Janeiro has the highest rate of > gun-related deaths in the country. Between 1980 and 2000 there were > 600,000 murders in Brazil against 350,000 during Angola's 27-year civil > war. Earlier this year a stash of eight landmines and 161 hand grenades > were discovered in the Coréia favela, in Rio's west. > > "No one really knows how many arms there are out there," conceded > Benjamin Lessing, a disarmament expert in Rio. > > Miles from the golden sands of Copacabana deadly conflicts are playing > themselves out between youthful drug dealers with names worthy of > cartoon characters, like "Dudu". A stone's throw from the road that > links Rio's international airport with the world-famous Ipanema beach > are some of the city's most explosive slums. To locals the area has > become known as "the Gaza Strip". Between 1987 and 2001 nearly 4,000 of > Rio's inhabitants met violent deaths compared with just 467 in the West > Bank, an official war zone. > > On the border between the Baixa do Sapateiro and Nova Holanda, two > favelas that make up Brazil's answer to Gaza, sits an empty school > building. Its walls are riddled with bullet holes. On the next street, > known locally as "Fogo Cruzado" (Cross Fire) because of frequent gun > battles between rival factions, empty cartridges litter the floor. > > "You never know when the shooting might start around here, or where it > might come from," said Ayrton Ribeiro, a social worker in the area, > crossing one of the area's putrid sewage outlets, into which traffickers > frequently dump bodies. "There is no future here." Since Stepladder's > era the traffickers have become increasingly ruthless. > > Dudu, who tried to invade Rocinha earlier this year, is reputed to feed > his opponents to a pet alligator. Other drug lords treat their enemies > with similar brutality - forcing them to swim through open sewers or > burning them in so-called microwaves, makeshift crematoriums made of car > tyres. In 2002, an undercover journalist was hacked to death with a > Samurai sword by a trafficker known as Elias Maluco (Crazy Elias). > > With drug wars endemic across the city Rio society is running scared. > > "Without doubt it's getting worse, especially in Rio," said Carlinhos > Costa, the co-ordinator of Security and Human Rights at the NGO Viva Rio. > > "It's OK for the foreigners who come here but we have to stay," added > Fábio Ema, a graffiti artist and social worker who has contact with some > of Rio's most violent drug traffickers. > > "If it carries on like this nobody is going to be able to leave their > house. The favela can't take anymore - it's turning into Bogotá in > Colombia," he said. > > Even in Rio's glitzy south zone the conflict is raging. Latin America's > largest shantytown Rocinha and its neighbour Vidigal are on a war > footing, occupied by military police. Teenage foot soldiers patrol > Vidigal's tight alleyways, only too aware that come tomorrow they too > might be laid out in the local morgue. Residents have been given a > curfew of 7pm, and a force of 100 police are searching people entering > and leaving the slum. > > "The traffickers are going to invade because they want to take over the > drug dens where the playboys go to spend their money," said a Vidigal > resident, who didn't want to be identified. > > According to police £2m worth of cocaine is shifted each week in > Rocinha. Since the murder of Rocinha's kingpin, Lulu, earlier this year > there has been a vicious power-struggle for control of the local drug trade. > > "You never know when things might kick off again," said Carlos Teixeira, > 28, who lives at the centre of Rocinha, a hot spot for clashes between > police and drug traffickers. As he speaks, a team of police Special > Forces file past, their rifles trained on the mishmash of redbrick > housing that characterise Rio's poor communities. According to the > latest figures police in Rio killed 1,000 Brazilians during 2003, the > majority young, black men. > > Stepladder's murder underlines the shift in values amongst Rio's drug > traffickers, which has sent the city into a downwards spiral of > heavily-armed violence. Until the mid-1980s pistols were the standard > kit amongst Rio's traficantes. Now it is commonplace to see AR-15 rifles > and Russian AK-47s touted on the alleys in many of Rio's 600 favelas, > which house 10 per cent of the city's population. > > Like all of Rio's drug lords, Stepladder worked his way up from the > bottom. He entered the drugs trade aged 16, when his father's > construction company went bust. Beginning as a fogueteiro (look-out), he > worked his way up to be dono (boss) of the slum in the late 1970s. In an > age of old-style gangster bosses, born and bred in the slums, he was a > popular figure, who opened a crèche in the community called the "Prince > of Peace". > > "Escadinha was such a legendary figure it's hard to distinguish the > myths from the reality," said Costa. > > Similar uncertainty surrounds the motive behind Stepladder's assassination. > > Some believe there was a dispute for the leadership of his taxi firm, > Elite. Others claim it was a case of account settling by rival drug > factions or the police. > > "Nobody's sure whether it was the Comando Vermelho (CV) or the Amigos > dos Amigos [a rival faction] that killed him. But it seems like he was > associating himself with a few different [drug] groups," said an > ex-member of the Red Command, who wouldn't be identified. > > Escadinha's family lived in the Morro do Juramento where the Amigos dos > Amigos (ADA) faction rules supreme. But recently police found two-way > radios from his taxi company in the hands of a rival gang, the CV. > Police suspect he had been sleeping with the enemy and was punished for > his betrayal. > > But as the samba peters out at the cemetery in Irajá, his wife remains > adamant Stepladder had turned his back on crime. "He died because he was > a man of his word. He said he wouldn't go back into crime and he > didn't," she insists. > > Sentenced to 51 years in prison for drug trafficking, the father-of-five > turned to evangelical Christianity and even enjoyed a brief career as a > hip-hop artist. In 1999, he recorded a track called "O Crime Nunca Mais" > (Crime Never Again) with the rapper MV Bill from City of God. > > But at the time of his death Stepladder was under investigation again > for suspected links to the drugs trade. > > He had his enemies, but he had many supporters too. As the slum's chefão > (kingpin) Stepladder looked after locals. The area's name, Juramento or > Vow, has roots in a pledge taken by its first donos to protect residents > from assault or rape. > > Times have changed. When Stepladder was Juramento's top man in the 1970s > the type of automatic rifle that killed him was virtually unheard of. > Now the hilltop slums are awash with heavy artillery. > > "I've known lots of these guys," said Fábio Ema. "They're not crazy like > people say, they sell drugs because they are against the system in which > we are living. > > "Society thinks that all you'll find in the favelas are poor black > people, who walk around barefoot. But you can't even imagine how > organised they are. They've got internet, radios, telephone... and their > message is one a lot of people buy." > > As violence levels soar and the state looks on helplessly, many of the > city's poor are faced with little option but to side with the traffickers. > > "Traffickers give you a chance, the police don't. The police come in [to > the favela] all guns blazing. It might be a worker or a student, > anyone," said Andrey Luiz Camara Gonçalves dos Santos, a resident of > Jacarépagua in Rio's west. > > A one-time resident of City of God, Carlos Teixeira, agrees: "If you're > hungry you can go to the boca [drugs HQ] and they'll give you something > that you'll never get at the Town Hall. Sometimes there's just nobody > who listens." > > In Jardim Catarina - a suburb of São Gonçalo where Stepladder used to > operate - the sentiments are similar. "I can't get angry with the > traffickers because they are the people and I can't be angry with my own > people," said Victor Hugo Freitas, 21. "Who am I going to support? The > police, who I don't know, or the traficante who is a childhood friend?" > asked Freitas who is a respected rapper in Rio, known as "Funk". > > Not everyone accepts the idea that today's traffickers have the support > of their communities - as Stepladder's generation seem to have had. > Costa said: "The phase of caring traffickers with respect for the > community is getting more and more distant and more truculent. > > "Nowadays these boys take over and don't have any respect for the > residents. The only thing they have is massive fire-power." > > Escadinha was from a different generation. "In the old days the > traffickers knew the suppliers and it was all much calmer," said Costa. > The calm has since been shattered by an open-ended orgy of violence. > > In the hills, high above the Juramento favela, a gun-salute rings out in > memory of Stepladder's death. It's the day after his murder. At the > slum's foot a loudspeaker churns out "Meu Bom Juiz" (My Good Judge), the > samba written by Bezerra da Silva in the 1980s as a tribute to his > friend, Escadinha. > > "This man is useful to us," praises one verse. "He is going to make our > population stronger." Below, in Juramento's back-alleys, the cocaine > business goes on uninterrupted. > > The cult of Stepladder spawned a host of musical tributes. Another track > recorded in his honour featured the line: "Carry me in your memory. > Because my future is death." It was a grim but fitting epitaph to his > eventual demise and a reminder of how, for thousands of children and > teenagers caught up in the drug trade, Rio de Janeiro is a city without > a future. > > > > -- > This message may contain privileged and/or confidential information and > is intended only for the addressee(s). > Unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of this > message is prohibited. > > Mayer Nudell, CSC > Specialized Consulting Services > N. Hollywood, California USA > +1-818-980-6990 §§ Fax: +1-818-980-6948 > www.speconsult.com > Member: ASIS, IACP, IISSM > > > > * > * NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 Section 107, this material > * is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a > * prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and > * educational purposes only. Provided by G2-Forward.