Michael McCarthy

Favela residents are innovating and banding together to survive. Since the government won’t help them, locals have no other choice but to turn to drug traffickers.

In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, masks and hand sanitizer come not from hospitals or the government but from the local drug dealer. Organized drug traffickers have switched from producing hard drugs to medical supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With deep ties in tightly packed neighborhoods, gangs have enforced pandemic guidelines in the absence of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, which has downplayed the virus’s threat. In fact, favela residents have organized in myriad ways to combat the coronavirus in ways that demonstrate the closely knit communities in these areas.

Gangs experienced a rise in members as the economic fallout of the pandemic worsened. As residents lost jobs, they were forced to find alternative ways to provide for themselves and their families. Concurrently, more and more residents depended on gangs to enforce curfews in their neighborhoods since the government refused to impose one.

Jair Bolsonaro is largely considered to have failed to address the medical, economic and political devastation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a national address, he said, “Given my athletic history, if I was to get the virus, it wouldn’t necessarily concern me.” In fact, he did test positive for the virus and seemed unconcerned about viral transmission when he removed his mask during a press conference. Bolsonaro has mostly dismissed the severity of the pandemic and opposes any and all lockdowns. At 142,161 deaths as of Sept. 28, Brazil has the second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, trailing only the United States.

Favelas are prime targets for a virus. They are tightly packed urban areas with typically poor sanitation and little access to medical facilities. The precise number of cases, however, is difficult to ascertain. Favelas lack the testing regimen of rich areas, so tracking the virus’s spread is hard to do accurately. Brazil’s first outbreaks were found to have originated in wealthy areas due to residents returning from vacations in Italy at the height of the surge there. As a result, the pandemic has deepened the already exorbitant class divide between primarily Black favela residents and White, wealthier “gringos.”

Favelas will likely become even more crowded in the near future. The COVID-induced recession has caused unemployment to skyrocket, leaving thousands without the means to pay rent. In Sao Paulo, 2,000 residents were evicted, and favelas have grown in the area to accommodate the influx of people with nowhere else to go. As one evicted resident told The Associated Press, “If you don’t pay, you go to the streets.”

Luckily, residents have found another resource besides gangs: each other. Neighborhood associations in Sao Paulo created an informal emergency care service to compensate for the lack of health care. The organization rents private ambulances daily and is comprised of street captains who supervise the neighborhoods. They make regular rounds with area families to check for COVID-19 symptoms and connect the sick with necessary care. This system demonstrates the tight-knit communities that emerge from the trying circumstances of a favela. As one street captain coordinator told The Intercept, “Since people aren’t getting any help from the government, people are looking to help themselves.”

These communities will become much tighter going forward as the pandemic renders travel of all kinds unwise or impossible. Travel up the social ladder has become equally treacherous. The pandemic has taken away one of the principal ways in which people try to move out of favelas: education. Many university students have moved back in with their parents and acquired jobs to support them. Though financially necessary, the decision to forgo a college education has long-lasting repercussions. A Brazilian graduate with a bachelor’s degree earns more than double the salary of a high school graduate. 

Brazil’s favelas demonstrate the extreme inequality in the country while also highlighting residents’ ability to work together and endure. Despite receiving no assistance whatsoever from the government, community members have found lasting ways to protect themselves against the virus. Still, the sad reality that gangs have proven more competent than Jair Bolsonaro’s administration shows that the coronavirus is only one of many issues Brazil must reckon with.