De profundis

The situation in Rio seems to be back to normal after the terrible events of earlier this week. The front page of O Globo's on-line edition headlines with the recent air-traffic control problems, America's victory over Fluminense and President Lula's desire to speak to President Bush about biodiesel. The story of the horrifying, terrible, lonely death of João Hélio is relegated to a sidebar. The British Guardian and Observer newspapers have missed the story entirely, reporting on militia-style vigilantes who are fighting back for control of the slum areas.

The Globo article seeks input from psychiatrists and sociologists: how could such youngsters be turned into such vicious and unfeeling monsters? They had (some of them) normal family lives, albeit in poverty; they were brought up in conditions that many young people survive without being turned into criminals; what made them act the way they did towards such a young innocent child?

Meanwhile, 300 people took to the streets in protest in central Rio last night; hardly a mass movement. There is another march planned on February 14, which is not a special day for loving couples in Brazil.

The fact is that the state turned rotten when these boys were young. The state failed them. There is no easy answer - drugs, crime, poverty, globalisation, organised religion, inequality - these are all factors, but it begins and ends with the state.

Brazil's return to democracy was beset with stumbles. The first democratically-elected president of the new era, Tancredo Neves, died before he could take office in 1985. His deputy, José Sarney, took the job and did it badly. In 1989, Fernando Collor, arch-criminal, was elected and impeached three years later. Itamar Franco took over until 1994, when eight years of Fernando Henrique Cardoso began, giving way in 2002 to the current President Lula, nominally a socialist.

And during that political turmoil, things got gradually and slightly better for poor Brazilians. But at the same time, organised crime was growing in wealth and influence. Brazil is not a drugs producing country, but is a very important exporter of illegal drugs. Its gangs are an alternative state within a state in most cities of Brazil.

A few months ago, one of the crime gangs called a strike in Rio. The Neguinha's cousin Fábio is a doctor and director of a hospital in the suburbs of Rio. Someone, he presumes someone connected with the call to strike, called him and told him to close his hospital that day. He did. He was not prepared to treat the call as a hoax, and calling the police would have achieved what, exactly?

The murderers of João Hélio grew up in this world, where crime rules and the state is powerless. They grew up as monsters because their country failed them. There are a number of triggers to this, evidently, but in my opinion the biggest single driver is the illegal drugs trade.

Since prohibition, neither now nor in the 1930s in the United States is effective in anything other than building and supporting the organised crime that creates and nurtures this trade, perhaps the most significant step we could take to reversing this situation and normalising social power would be to legalise drugs.