Nearly a quarter of Rio residents, or about 1.4 million people, live in the country's hillside "favelas", otherwise known as slum or shantytown neighbourhoods.
Rio's largest favela is Rocinha. It is what is called a "pacified" favela, where police units weed out drug traffickers. Over 9,000 police have set up base in the favella communities since the program was intiatied six years ago.
The police presence has curbed the drug scene somewhat but not enough to eradicate it.
One youth told SBS he was too frightened to talk openly about drugs in his neighbourhood.
"Are drugs a problem? I cannot talk about that," he says.
Around 600,000 foreign tourists are expected to travel to Brazil for the World Cup. That's causing concern for one of Rocinha's locals, street vendor "Peanut".
He has seen the change in his community over the past four decades and says he fears the impact of the World Cup tourists on the area, which is undergoing a process of gentrification.
"Forty years ago, it was the same, different name. And then the drug leaders, factions, criminals took over and then there was no control by [the] state," Peanut says.
One of the lucky few to have a sponsored education and travel through his athletics, Peanut says he wouldn't live anywhere else.
Recent government figures found about 70,000 people reside in Rocinha, but locals say the figure is at least double that.
Peanut hopes that once the World Cup and Olympics are over, the government and police won't forget about Rocinha.
"If they have good intentions, everything is going to be alright," he says.
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