The Marvelous City of Rio

"Rio de Janeiro", Brazil's most precious gem with it's sandy beaches, beautiful women and fine cuisine but like every other major city it's plagued with crime, everything from street gangs, prostitution and corrupted police. Rio is about 486.5 square miles with about six million people, twenty percent of them live in slums known as "favelas". That's about the size of Los Angeles with double the population. There are about 300 known favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

Providencia slum

Rocinha slum

Dona Marta slum

Jacarezinho slum

Morro dos Macacos slum known as (Monkey Hill)

The crime rate is primary in the North Zone. As of 2007, the homicide rate of the greater metropolitan area stood at nearly 30 victims per week. In 2006, 2,273 people were murdered in the city giving it a murder rate of 37.7 cases for every 100,000 people.

Between 1978 and 2000, 49,900 people were killed in Rio de Janeiro. The police are low paid and ill-equipped , police are violent as well, it has been said . In 2007, the police allegedly killed 1,330 people in Rio . In comparision, the American police killed only 347 people in the whole of the United States of America during 2006.

Oct, 18 2009 , Bloody drug gang shootouts that left 25 people dead!

Many of the homeless in Rio de Janeiro are kids. Most of them end up joining a gang, prostitution or selling drugs. Many of the kids in the gangs are as young as 10 years ago, some have even been spotted carry high-powered semi-automatic weapons such as AK-47s.

Most of the kids are runaways , some are from homes where the parents beat and abuse them , so they end up on the streets.

However,Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's prime destination tourist attraction and one of the reasons  it's hosting the 2016 summer olympics.                                                                                                                               

              To learn more about the not so good side of Rio de Janeiro , check out movies like " City of God", "Bus 174", "Elite Squad"and Favela Rising it's a documentary about the life in the slums of Rio.