The poetry of Rio's 'Suppressed Favelas'

By Flora Charner, CNN

Updated 0119 GMT (0919 HKT) December 28, 2015

Two children walk past a police checkpoint in Rio de Janeiro. While visiting the city's infamous favelas, photographer Matteo Bastianelli explored the complex relationship between some of Rio's poorest residents and the state's security forces. He's titled his project "Suppressed Favelas."
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Two children walk past a police checkpoint in Rio de Janeiro. While visiting the city's infamous favelas, photographer Matteo Bastianelli explored the complex relationship between some of Rio's poorest residents and the state's security forces. He's titled his project "Suppressed Favelas."
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A man carries a package while two young women sit in front of a mural in Rio.
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A man carries a package while two young women sit in front of a mural in Rio.
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A Police Pacification Unit monitors the Cantagalo favela. Launched in 2008, the "pacification" program has been put in place in nearly 40 favelas and has received mixed reviews. It was designed to limit the reach of armed drug gangs by installing permanent police posts within the favelas where they typically operated.
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A Police Pacification Unit monitors the Cantagalo favela. Launched in 2008, the "pacification" program has been put in place in nearly 40 favelas and has received mixed reviews. It was designed to limit the reach of armed drug gangs by installing permanent police posts within the favelas where they typically operated.
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A child tries to retrieve his kite snagged on a lamppost in the Rocinha favela. "Kites are playful; they are meant to soar in the air," Bastianelli said. "This one was tangled, much like the favela's residents continue to be in Rio's ongoing 'war on drugs' between the police and the gangs."
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A child tries to retrieve his kite snagged on a lamppost in the Rocinha favela. "Kites are playful; they are meant to soar in the air," Bastianelli said. "This one was tangled, much like the favela's residents continue to be in Rio's ongoing 'war on drugs' between the police and the gangs."
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A man carries a birdcage through the streets of Cantagalo.
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A man carries a birdcage through the streets of Cantagalo.
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A child comes out of a tent where he lives with his family near Jardim Gramacho, a former landfill that was shut down in 2012.
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A child comes out of a tent where he lives with his family near Jardim Gramacho, a former landfill that was shut down in 2012.
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