RIO'S BERLIN WALL

Although many shantytowns are located next to the city's ordinary neighbourhoods, during many decades an invisible "Berlin Wall" divided the "favelas" (the shantytowns on the hillsides) from the "asfalto" (literally, "asphalt", the city beneath). Dominated by drug traffickers, the favelas where a forbidden territory for the outside population. But with the "pacification" (occupation by permanent police forces) the favelas are being reintegrated to the city as a whole. The photo above shows the Favela Pavão-Pavãozinho, in Copacabana.