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People and Power- Peace in the favelas

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For decades Brazil’s favelas – or shanty towns – have been a deadly battleground, where thousands died in the turf wars of rival gangsters and drug lords. But two years ago – in anticipation of the football World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics, the Brazilian government launched a new initiative. Since then the Police Pacifying Units (UPP), have moved into 12 favelas, freeing 150000 people from the control of the gangs and bringing a new calm to embattled neighbourhoods. But as filmmakers Dom Rotheroe and Alfonso Daniels found out – while most residents in the UPP-controlled favelas welcome the fragile peace others fear it may not last.

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