Word: favelas
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...collections, chopped subsidies, tightened credit, slowed down the currency printing presses. For all his efforts, living costs under his regime have soared no less than 117%, and he himself has had to double the official minimum wage level. Last week bus fares in Rio rose 40%, and hordes of favela dwellers began getting up hours early to walk to work. Since Castello Branco took over, the price of meat has gone up from 400 cruzeiros per kilo to 1,900, black beans from 180 to 950, rice from 100 to 560. Hardest to take of all, many Brazilians of late...
Hurt worst were the favelas, the shantytowns that house one-quarter of Rio's 4,000,000 inhabitants. Many of the favelas cling precariously to steep hills. As the rains loosened the soil, the shacks slid dizzily down. Many favela dwellers escaped; others failed to get out soon enough. Slum dwellers in the low-lying northern suburb fared little better: the entire area was flooded...
...cops are helpless, always patrol in groups and only during daylight. Except one. For the past 25 years, favela law, or what there was of it, largely rested on City Detective Perpétuo de Freitas da Silva...
...funeral drew the high and mighty. But Perpétuo belonged to the favelados, and 5,000 of them turned out to march in the procession, and crowd around his coffin for a last look, or touch, or tear. After the burial, leaders of the "Skeleton" favela solemnly met to discuss changing the name to "Perpétuo" favela. "He would have liked that," was the explanation...
...recently put the torch to an entire hillside favela after moving 684 families into the new Vila Alianca housing development. But Brazilian cities must build one new house or apartment every two minutes to keep up with the growth rate-and even Sao Paulo's amazing building boom is good for only one every ten minutes...