Exploring the Brazilian underworld: exploitation or education?
Yes, we’re all reeling at the news that Private Tours, a Rio de Janeiro-based company that offers tourists the full slum experience including a nice chat and photo opportunity with Brazil’s finest gun-toting, crack-pushing crims, is being shut down by the authorities. However, bloggers have been slow to come forward with their tales of drugland derring-do, as it seems that most of them are conscientious types who’ve found a way to explore the underbelly of Brazil without adding to the funds of chemically addled warlords.
In Fred and Ernie’s Latin American Adventure, Fred has just posted his ‘Rant About Favelas’, describing his tour around the Vila Canohas and Rocinha favelas with a ‘huminatarian’ company that finance a school in the area. Although he appreciates the insight into Brazil’s underclass, Fred still has reservations about ‘making the poor a tourist attraction’; read his detailed and thought-provoking post here.
Mike has also been touring Rocinha, discovering that ‘rather than attend school, many of the kids prefer to work for the drug lords.’ Interestingly, he points out that ‘crime is not tolerated in the favelas. The drug lords who control the favelas are fierce about controlling any activity that might attract police presence’. See his photos and thoughts at yobosayo, where he also describes his travels in nearby Paraguay and Argentina.
