Hey Jose

I was lucky enough to be staying in a nice hotel overlooking Copacabana Beach, when I saw the police moving on a rather bedraggled looking guy trying to kip down on the beach. The contrast between his life and mine right then was overwhelming.

The UPP referred to are the Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (Pacifying Police Unit), a kind of community police, trying to get rid of drug gangs in the favelas (shanty towns) like one called Rocinha, and Red Command (Comando Vermelho) are an organised crime gang. Leblon is a very chic and expensive region of Rio de Janeiro.