That's sad to hear. It has been a few years since I visited the city. But I'm sure that it doesn't compare to Porto Alegre. Jez, Porto Alegre is just terrible. It seems like you will be robbed in every dawn corner.

That sucks, I always thought Brazil was a pretty interesting country.

When did things go out of control actually? Was it because of world cup? I've never heard abt these increasing violence case until very lately

Brazil for tourism is a nice place. For living it sucks. Because as a tourist you are going to see the good side, and if you are european or american you are coming with USD or Euros, and your money will be more than enough for you to live the best here.

But it`s the thing, if a person is really rich he can live just the best part of it, like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, if you live in places like Jardins, Higienopolis, Leblon and Barra you are going to live like a person would live in NY or LA. The thing is, there are many realities inside our country, there is a reality that is just like a first world country and there`s a reality that is like an warzone.

If he's lucky, he could try to get a work visa. Most EU countries aren't very strict towards immigration from Latin America.

You do know social welfare fraud, while a problem, is in most countries smaller by a factor 1000 then fiscal fraud.

I'm not an expert on this topic, but I honestly think corruption has destroyed so much of Brazil. It's on a level I never expected.

In the middle east, I lived in a very poor region of Palestine. I never saw any huge issues (besides the rare fight or two) and most people lived with each other quite fine. Even without the best economic conditions, people were at least partially happy.

What exactly has the government done to establish such high levels of corruption? Every place has crime, but hearing these stories really leaves me speechless. I really hope it doesn't get much worse from here

That's the thing. I agree that a lot of places in Brazil are dangerous, but not all of them. Not even close. If you say that, you must live in a somewhat dangerous area. Plus, most countries have dangerous cities/neighbourhoods/etc. It's not an excuse... it must be terrible to lose a friend that way indeed, but all I'm saying it that given the place he lived it's not really surprising and that it doesn't mean that ALL places here are dangerous like that. That's where I think people are overreating (let's face it: we, brazilians, are drama queens when it comes to our country... we like to criticize everything, even the parts that are good).

There`s a theory that says the root of violence isn`t poverty, but inequality. In Brazil inequality is horrenduous and it`s just getting worse. This is why for example in some isolated cities in Brazil that are really poor are peaceful and some places like Rio favelas are extremely violent, even being reacher than the isolated city, because those people are poor when compared with the people that lives in the noble areas of the town.

And also there`s the thing, Brazil never had a rupture in a political sense. We were a portuguese colony and even being independent most of our political structure is pretty much the same, if you study Brazil history you see how ridiculuous it was, there were very few momentrs when some change tried to happen. We are pretty much a glorified medieval country right now, we have most of the conveniences of the modern world but they are avalaible to the very few while most people don`t have treated water and sewage systems at their homes. 

This place is collapsing, the brazillian government is going to collapse if not this decade the next it will for sure. 

In the long run, strong social programs/ heavy investment in accessible education is very efficient in reducing crime. Northern Europe/Canada/Japan/New Zealand are all safer than the US.