DRUG LORDS BEFRIEND POOR AS BRAZIL'S GOVERNMENT FAILS

RIO DE JANEIRO - On a steep hillside, an organization is generously
maintaining the local soccer field, donating cash to help operate day- care
centers, providing cheap transit, staging musical extravaganzas, offering
medicine and food to needy families and assuring the security of the more
than 250,000 residents packed into the massive Rocinha ghetto.

There are many such organizations operating throughout Brazil. In Rocinha,
as in other favelas, the haphazardly constructed slums across Rio and other
big cities in Latin America's largest nation, the organizations are known
as "the Parallel Power" - the new euphemism for Brazil's increasingly
omnipotent drug lords.

Residents of the favelas, where about 40 percent of Rio's population can be
found, say the well-organized gangs of drug traffickers have essentially
replaced the regular government.

In a relationship not unlike that between Italy and its old Mafia dons, the
drug lords of Rio have become the people's benefactors. In return, the
traffickers are winning greater control over their territory, a measure of
goodwill from the community and an expanding market for their wares.

A powerful drug gang called the Red Command, for example, is providing
residents with everything the legitimate government cannot, said Alexandre
de Brito, 43, a barber in Rocinha, widely considered Latin America's
largest shantytown.

"They help us out in so many ways, doing things for the good of the
community," he said, pointing to white Volkswagen vans darting up and down
the steep roads. The vans, he and others here said, were provided by the
drug dealers after residents complained about poor municipal bus service.

"The (traffickers) make the streets safe - I haven't been robbed in years -
and if you're in need, they find a way to help you out," de Brito said.
"For us, they are not the problem, they are part of our solution."

The rise of the benevolent drug dealer, analysts here say, is part of
Brazil's new and growing cocaine culture. According to a State Department
report compiled last year and disputed by the Brazilian government, this
sprawling nation of 170 million is the world's second-largest consumer of
cocaine, after the United States. Brazilians use an estimated 40 to 50 tons
per year, the report said.

The traffickers have, in ways once unimaginable, gained a foothold in the
life of the city. In one highly publicized incident, Carrefour - a
French-owned discount chain similar to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club - allegedly
contracted a drug gang to send a message to residents after a wave of
shoplifting last year.

According to a report compiled by Rio-based Global Justice, a human- rights
group, two suspected female shoplifters accused store officials of calling
in gang members to "teach them a lesson."

One of the women claims to have been severely beaten and then forced to
walk with a gasoline-doused tire around her neck before her friend escaped
and called the police.

Critics cite huge societal dangers in destigmatizing drug dealers, not the
least of which is underplaying Brazil's drug violence.

Violent gang rivalries, as well as clashes between traffickers and police,
caused the death of 3,937 children and adolescents from December 1987 to
November 2001, the Rio-based Institute for Religious Studies said in a
report this month.

"Brazil is facing an unprecedented drug-violence problem, and perhaps the
biggest danger is that we are not taking it seriously enough," said
Argemiro Procopio, a researcher on the drug problem and a professor of
international relations at the University of Brasilia. "There is not enough
condemnation of the dealers going on; in fact, we are now seeing just the
opposite. You have young kids and even adults out there who are idolizing
them. This has got to stop."

Deep inside Rio's favelas, however, the drug dealers appear to rule
absolutely. Favelas are the perfect fortress for organized crime: They have
one entrance and one exit, which are almost always guarded by gang members.
The gangs have become so well armed, possessing grenades and even rocket
launchers, that local law enforcement is finding itself at a loss to combat
them.

On a steep hill in Rocinha, Edmilson Valentim, a candidate for Rio's city
council in elections next month, handed out glossy fliers in the street.
When asked about the dealers, he began rattling off the good things they
have done for the community.

"There is no debate going on about whether they should be here or not. They
just are, it's a fact of life, and they make it easier on everyone by
helping out in the community," he said. "If we did not have so much need,
so much misery here, perhaps we would not need them. But we do have need
and misery, and someone needs to help the people."

On Rocinha's cement walls and along its winding corridors, posters
advertise free concerts that many people admit are financed by drug
dealers. In recent years, the drug lords have become the band's patrons,
buying the musicians guitars and other equipment.

Nene, a singer in a popular band who asked that his full name be withheld,
said the traffickers are paying a Rio radio station about $4,000 a month to
play one of the group's songs twice a day.

The group's performances, however, are almost always used by dealers as an
opportunity to market cocaine to poor residents. The drug, mixed with cheap
baking soda, sells for less than $1 a line.

"Look, it's a chain of favors," Nene said. "The dealers pay us, the people
get entertainment, and the dealers then make some money off us by selling.
That's the way it works now. You don't have to buy drugs to listen to the
music, and the people seem to really like it. It works out OK for us."