Gang Violence Is Moving to the Amazon’s Fast-Growing Cities

This is the second article in a series on the challenges and opportunities of the urban Amazon. Read the first one here.

Framed by an elegant riverside promenade and a modest skyline with streets enviably free of gridlock, Macapá is that rare major Brazilian city with a lingering small-town vibe.

But lately residents of the so-called urban “jewel of the Amazon” have come to know a less-charming side to this fast-growing regional capital. Hardly a week passes in this sprawling metropolis on the left bank of the Amazon River without word of another homicide, brazen assault or contract killing.

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