Business was brisk in the Mandela shantytown on a recent night. In
the glow of a weak light bulb, customers pawed through packets of
powdered cocaine and marijuana priced at $5, $10, $25. Teenage boys with
semiautomatic weapons took in money and made change while flirting with
girls in belly-baring tops lounging nearby.
Next to them, a
gaggle of kids jumped on a trampoline, oblivious to the guns and
drug-running that are part of everyday life in this and hundreds of
other slums, known as favelas, across this metropolitan area of 12
million people. Conspicuously absent from the scene was crack, the most
addictive and destructive drug in the triad that fuels Rio's lucrative
narcotics trade.
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