Favelas

I found this article about a fire in one of Sao Paulo's favelas, and I realized we hadn't really talked about these that much in class.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091012/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_slum_fire

A favela is a Brazilian slum.  In the cities, they are extremely compact and feel like a labyrinth.  The police usually have little to no control there, and usually, it is under control of one drug lord or another.  They are almost completely different cities.

Here is a group of articles about life in favelas, and it also has a few pictures. Just click on them for a different article in the group.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/specials/favelas/handholding.html