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Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio

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Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio

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Overview

The astonishing story of an ordinary man forced to make a decision that would turn his world upside down

How did Antônio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, a hardworking young father, become the king of Rocinha, the largest slum in Rio; the head of a drug cartel; and perhaps Brazil’s most wanted criminal, known to all as “Nem”? Nemesis is the riveting account of his ruthless ascent in Rio’s terrifying underworld, his sway over its anarchic outlaw culture, and his accidental fall. Nem tried to bring welfare and justice to a playground of gang culture and destitution, but he quickly found himself embroiled in a world of gold hunters and evangelical pastors, bent police officers and rich-kid addicts, quixotic politicians and drug lords with math degrees.

Spanning rainforests and high-security prisons, filthy slums and glittering shopping malls, Nemesis chronicles Brazil’s journey into the global spotlight—and the battle for the beautiful but damned city of Rio as it struggles to break free from a tangled web of corruption, violence, drugs and poverty. Nem is held at the center of it all, locked in a fight for his country’s future.

From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385351041
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/09/2016
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	830,271
File size:	53 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

MISHA GLENNY is the author of DarkMarket, McMafia, The Rebirth of History, The Fall of Yugoslavia (which won the Overseas Press Club Award in 1993 for Best Book on Foreign Affairs) and The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804–1999. He was a BBC Central Europe correspondent—he covered the fall of Communism and the wars in the former Yugoslavia—and has been regularly consulted by the U.S. and European governments on major policy issues. He lives in London.

From the Hardcover edition.

Maps xii

Preface xvii

Prologue: The Arrest I: 9-10 November 2011 3

I Protagonist

1 Eduarda December: 1999-June 2000 13

2 Favela: 1960-1976 23

3 Cocaine: 1979-1989 36

4 Bodies: 1980-1987 45

5 Moral Collapse: 1989-1999 57

6 Up the Mill: June 2000 65

II Hubris

7 Massacre: 1993 71

8 Orlando Jogador: 1994 77

9 Lulu's Law: 1999-2004 87

10 Fracture: 2001-2004 98

11 The Passion of Rocinha: April 2004 108

12 The Ballad of the Thin Man: April 2004 116

13 The King Is Dead: 2004 124

14 Bem-te-vi: 2004-2005 128

III Nemesis

15 The Great Change: 1994-2004 137

16 A Helping Hand: 2006-2007 143

17 Taking Care of Business: 2004-2007 152

18 We're Not Alone: 2007 159

19 Boom Time: 2007 165

20 Nem's Bride: 2004-2006 170

21 Nemesis: 1997-2009 176

22 The Battle for Rio: 2006-2008 180

23 Kocinha's Golden Age: 2007-2009 186

24 Politics: 2008-2010 194

25 The Hotel Intercontinental: August 2010 199

IV Catharsis

26 First Contact: September 2010 211

27 The Taking of Alemão: November 2010 216

28 Confessions: January-April 2011 223

29 Luana and Andressa: 9 May 2011 229

30 The Arrest II: 3-9 November 2011 237

Epilogue 252

Appendix 267

Glossary 271

Acknowledgements 273

Notes 277

Index 281

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Editorial Reviews

Reading Nemesis is like taking a walking tour of Baltimore's underworld with [The Wire's] Stringer Bell…Most true-crime accounts are heavy on car chases and shootouts, and light on analysis. Glenny turns that formula upside down. He is at his best in a quieter voice, sorting out why the police cannot simply swoop into a favela and arrest Mr. Big, and how street lookouts work and, especially, how a smart young Brazilian with a sick baby could transform himself into a crime lord.

The New York Times Book Review - Edward Dolnick

12/21/2015
Investigative journalist Glenny (DarkMarket) provides a grim look at Rio de Janeiro through the life of Antônio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, known as Nem, who up until his arrest in 2011 was one of Brazil's most-wanted criminals. Nem's path to crime reads like something out of a novel. Prior to 1999, when his infant daughter Eduarda was diagnosed with a serious and rare disease, Nem was a diligent employee of Globus Express, a magazine distribution company. Unable to raise the needed funds for treatment, Nem turns to Lulu, a local gang leader, who agrees to give him the money; the grateful Nem offers to work for Lulu to pay off his debt. This arrangement leads Nem to become a major drug dealer who "exercised immense authority over a community of 100,000 people," and who may even have managed to continue to direct his cartel's operations from behind bars. Glenny interviewed Nem in prison 10 times and is clearly sympathetic to him ("Nem is no paragon, nor is he the devil"), but still manages to offer a balanced look at his subject. He less successfully attempts to connect Nem's story to the broader context of human nature. Agent: Clare Conville, Conville and Walsh Literary Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Fearlessly reported with impressive detail….Mr. Glenny doesn’t preach or moralize. He shows that law enforcement in Rio is as problematic as the criminals, and in doing so, he paints what seems to be a true picture. This is a balanced book in the best sense.

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
In 1999, with no criminal background, Antonio Francisco Bonfim Lopes was a typical resident of Rocinha, trying to figure out how to survive and support his family in one of Rio de Janeiro's largest favelas. Less than six years later he was known as Nem, in charge of the large criminal organization unofficially ruling over Rocinha. The story of Nem acts as the glue for this title, in which journalist Glenny (The Fall of Yugoslavia; DarkMarket) successfully explores the history of Rio de Janeiro, focusing on the violence, drug trade, politics, police forces, and related corruption within Rio's favelas since the 1960s. Weaving primary and secondary sources including jail cell interviews, Glenny recalls and builds upon previous accounts of criminal life in the settlements, such as Paulo Lins's City of God or the 2007 film Elite Squad. Glenny employs a writing style that both keeps the story moving and the reader wanting more. VERDICT This book is relevant for anyone interested in true crime stories, particularly involving the crime and corruption of Rio de Janeiro's favelas. [See Prepub Alert, 8/24/15.]—Jeremy Spencer, Univ. of California, Davis, Law Lib.

Library Journal

2015-11-24
A page-turning chronicle of the life and career of a favela don illustrates the larger challenges of a deeply impoverished, class-ridden Brazilian society. British author and former BBC Central Europe correspondent Glenny (DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You, 2011, etc.) finds an inspiring subject in Antonio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, aka Nem, one of the most wanted drug running criminals in Rio de Janeiro, who has been imprisoned since 2011 in the high-security Campo Grande prison in Mato Grosso do Sul. Having interviewed him in prison multiple times over two years, the author vividly depicts the extraordinary career of this young don of the Rocinha favela—the largest of Rio's hundreds of slum neighborhoods—with enormous subtlety and sympathy, filling in his story by interviewing his family, enemies, colleagues, and others. Rocinha—the size of a small city in which tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of residents live "cheek by jowl" with more middle-class districts of Ipanema, Leblon, and others—was adversely affected by the rise of the cocaine trafficking market in the 1980s, with drug lords taking turns running the favela economy, employing the gangsters, eliminating enemies, and generally keeping the peace with the Red Command. Having grown up in the favela, Nem was in his early 20s in 2000, a driver by trade and with a wife and sick daughter, when he solicited help from the current don, Lulu, borrowing money for his daughter's care and thus indenturing himself with the Mafia. From working for Lulu's "security" to gradually taking on more responsibility, Nem rose above the internecine gangster wars in 2004 and 2005 to take command in Rocinha at the time of Brazil's enormous economic surge and globalization. For five years, Nem ran the local welfare economy in relative harmony, until the military and civil police began a "pacification" program to rid the city of the drug trade—and clean it up for the World Cup and the Olympics. Glenny does an admirable investigative job, delving deeply into the complicated causes and effects of Rio's drug trafficking.

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Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio

Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio

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