Jardim Angela is a district on the southwestern edge of Sao Paulo, Brazil. A sea of tiny shanties and hovels randomly crowded together make up most of the neighborhoods in the area. Murder rates were soaring out of control in the late 1990s and around the turn of the millennium. Jardim Angela and two other districts, Capao Redondo and Jardim Sao Luis, were considered by the Sao Paulo Civil Police to be the "triangle of death." In 1996, there were 538 people murdered in this area, most of whom were teenagers. The numbers continued to rise steadily each year and peaked in 2001 with a total of 741 homicides in the triangle of death, according to the Seade Foundation. Drug trafficking was rampant. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) tagged the district as one of the most violent in the world, even topping cities that were involved in formal wars.
展开▼
