ABSTRACT
Brazil appears on the one hand as an exotic region, a place of paradisiacal beaches, edenic forests, carnival, capoeira and soccer and on the other hand as a dreadful place of urban violence, child prostitution, disregard for basic human rights and disdain for nature. Brazil is celebrated as one of the countries best prepared to assume a leading role on the world stage with ample natural resources, agriculture, cattle production and diversified industries with enormous potential for production and consumer growth. The homicide rate in Brazil has reached 20 deaths per 100,000 people, which totals 37,000 homicides per year, a number three times greater than the world average. Invisible, held down by low salaries and deprived of the basic rights of citizenship: housing, transportation, leisure, education and healthcare—the majority of Brazilians have always constituted a disposable piece of the machinery driving the economy.
