The favelas in Rio de Janeiro, slums where drugs and guns are a daily reality, are often separated by only one street from the richest and most exclusive areas of the city. With the World Cup coming to Rio in 2014, and the Olympics in 2016, politicians are trying to clean up and pacify the favelas. Picture: Frederik Buyckx / World Press Photo 2013 Source: Supplied
GOOGLE will reportedly remove the world "favela" from its maps of Rio de Janeiro after pressure from the tourist board.
Favela is the term for slum or shanty town in Portugese. Hundreds of slums no matter how big or small were previously identified on the maps using the Portugese world favela. Now they will be called "morro" or hill.
About 6 per cent of Brazilians live in favelas. The original shanty towns were homes for soldiers returned from the war. Later they were places where former slaves with no land ownership lived. Modern favelas filled up with rural Brazilians who flocked to the city to earn money.
But now many favelas are under control of rug gangs and criminal organisations. There are regular shoot outs between drug traffickers, police and other criminals. Rio has a murder rate in excess of 40 people per 100,000 in the city. That figure is even higher in the faveals.
Read about what it is like to enter a favela like this newsltd travel writer did in 2011.
Since 2009 the Mayor of Rio and tourism company Riotur have campaigned to remove the world favela from the maps saying the inhabitants of small favelas were given too much prominence over conventional favelas in neighbourhoods like Velho, Humaita and Cosme.
Critics say the removal of the word may cause tourists to unwittingly walk into a dangerous favela. Many commentators said removing the word would put tourists in danger for the sake of Rio's image.
Rio’s Popular Committee said: “The virtual removal is part of a city project that tries to hide poverty and the poor as much in virtual environments as in reality, with forced removals.”
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