The neighborhood is a labyrinth of filthy alleys winding past clumsily built shacks and grubby tents. It stinks of garbage and urine. A woman shampoos her long hair in a public fountain.
Young men lean on a wall and mainline heroin in broad daylight.
The government is demolishing the shacks and expects to move the remaining 1,200 families into brand-new homes by the end of next year. About a third of the 50-acre slum has been cleared, and 800 people are already living in new houses. Rodrigo Coutinho, a physician who works at a shelter for homeless drug addicts from Casal Ventoso, considers it the most virulent drug quarter in Europe. At one point, up to 5,000 people poured in every day to buy drugs, he says. It was the country's main drug supermarket.