0:00:04 > 0:00:07I'm on the last stage of my journey through South America.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09I've come to Brazil,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13the biggest and richest country on this continent.
0:00:13 > 0:00:191,400 miles further south, I've entered an entirely new world.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22It's a stunning view.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26Brazil is vast.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29It's home to almost 200 million people.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36It's got the Amazon and it's a nation of phenomenal natural wealth.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40And I'm here with Zach, who is a gold prospector,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43although he calls himself a fisherman.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48Brazil is booming, and that creates profound tensions
0:00:48 > 0:00:51between economic growth and saving the planet.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53It seems to me that the world wants it both ways.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55It wants to save the Amazon rainforest
0:00:55 > 0:00:56and eat more and more beef.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58You can't do both.
0:01:00 > 0:01:01And there are other tensions.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06The world's largest Catholic community is being challenged by a young upstart.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11Instead of a high altar in the middle, there's a cage,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15and they're here to watch martial arts.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19As I make my way across this extraordinary country,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22I also explore the great gulf between rich and poor
0:01:22 > 0:01:25in a nation striving to define its global role
0:01:25 > 0:01:29in the brave new world of the 21st century.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44My journey starts in the Amazon, at the city of Manaus.
0:01:44 > 0:01:461,000 miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56This is an oasis of industry in the middle of the rainforest.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01From electronics to car making, Manaus is flourishing.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04A success story that started well over a century ago.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09This opera house was built on the proceeds
0:02:09 > 0:02:12of the world demand for rubber at the end of the 19th century.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14It was gaudy and opulent.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Then the demand collapsed and the city became poor again
0:02:17 > 0:02:20and that's the story of Brazil.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Global demand for commodities, a boom, followed by crash.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28But this time the government claims it's for real,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32that Brazil's economic growth will propel it
0:02:32 > 0:02:34into becoming an economic superpower.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Over the last 20 years, the city has doubled in size.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Two million people now live in this testimony
0:02:48 > 0:02:51to Brazil's surging economic ambition.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03Last year, the economy grew at over 7% despite the global recession.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07No wonder that next year the country is poised to overtake Britain
0:03:07 > 0:03:11to become the sixth largest economy in the world.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It's early in the morning and I'm going on a bus with the workers
0:03:22 > 0:03:25who are building what is probably the most important bridge
0:03:25 > 0:03:28being built in Brazil, with huge implications.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31I'm going with Luciana, who's one of the architects on the project.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34- Hi, Luciana.- Hi.- After you.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40The bridge at Manaus has cost around 400 million.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43It's 3.5 kilometres in length.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46They are building here the first bridge ever to cross the Amazon
0:03:46 > 0:03:50or its network of giant tributaries.
0:03:50 > 0:03:51THEY PRAY
0:03:51 > 0:03:54First, every morning, a prayer for safety.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Over the next three years, Brazil plans
0:04:04 > 0:04:07to spend around a trillion dollars and create millions of jobs
0:04:07 > 0:04:12to upgrade the country's rickety infrastructure.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14The Manaus Bridge, which is almost finished,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18opens a new route into the rainforest.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23A measure of just how much this country has in the way of commodities,
0:04:23 > 0:04:29every single part of this bridge is constructed with materials that come from within Brazil.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33The iron, concrete, nothing from abroad.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39We are doing exactly the joint.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41- The joint, right here? - Right here.- Yeah.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45And to finish it, to put the iron part,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49the iron work, and then the concrete.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51'Luciana is 28.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53'She landed this plum job far from her home
0:04:53 > 0:04:56'soon after getting her university degree.'
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Give me a picture of how you think it will be
0:05:01 > 0:05:04on that side in five years' time, ten years' time.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Well, a lot of buildings...
0:05:08 > 0:05:10with residences.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14And commerce. A lot of commerce here.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17And everything close to the bridge.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20So it will be like a sister city starts to grow there?
0:05:20 > 0:05:23It will start to grow.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Does any part of you say,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28"It's very beautiful but that's the jungle
0:05:28 > 0:05:30"and the jungle is very precious.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33"Do we want to have more buildings in the jungle?"
0:05:33 > 0:05:34Development is necessary.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37We need to do this to grow.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39The city is full.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42So we need to grow to the other side.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47And we need to do this, but taking care of the nature.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56It is a very big project and with huge implications.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59It's going to probably mean incredible development,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03not only a big city there, where the forest now is,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07but a road with all possibilities for developing off that road,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10and that's the really big challenge for Brazil.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12Brazil is aware of the challenge, incidentally.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15It's how to reconcile development and growth,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17which this country needs on the one hand,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21with the vital importance of the Amazon on the other.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Maintaining that very, very delicate balance
0:06:25 > 0:06:31between building societies and effectively saving planets.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46'I'm on my way out of the city.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49'With me, Amusa Fanchez, who's a student in Manaus.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51'But her home is 15 kilometres upriver
0:06:51 > 0:06:55'where she lives on her family's reservation as a member of one of many Indian tribes
0:06:55 > 0:06:59'for whom the Amazon basin is an historic homeland.'
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Part of the time you're in the city as a student,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07cosmopolitan, 21st century.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Part of the time you are in your village.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40When you see the bridge coming across into the forest,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42what do you think about that?
0:08:08 > 0:08:11It's quite magical navigating through the waterways
0:08:11 > 0:08:14that lace their way through the Amazon rainforest
0:08:14 > 0:08:18and to know that there are millions, 25 million people living there.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23But the value of the Amazon is far greater than that.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25It's almost impossible to exaggerate.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30I'm on my way now to see one example of precisely why that's the case.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40'Rainforests are home to half the plant and animal life on the planet.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44'They are vital to humanity, to the chain of life on Earth.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48'And this biodiversity also conceals a treasure trove of medicines.'
0:08:51 > 0:08:53'Amusa's father is the village headman.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56'A shaman, a healer with a profound knowledge of the forest.'
0:08:59 > 0:09:02- This is my father. - How nice to meet you.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07- This is my brother, Mirapul. - Mirapul.
0:09:07 > 0:09:08Mirapul. Jonathan.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26'Armundo Vas learnt to identify
0:09:26 > 0:09:29'the healing properties of plants as a child.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32'A wisdom passed down the generations.'
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Oh! It's a wonderful smell!
0:10:03 > 0:10:08It's clear, clean, like a cleansing smell.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12It's wonderful. Clears the sinuses.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Does everyone in the village use this when they get the cold,
0:10:15 > 0:10:17when they get fever?
0:10:21 > 0:10:25It always bemuses me that when you see something like this,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27so many people are ready to say, "Oh, that must be fake,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31"it's a shamanism," or something like that. I happen to believe him.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35It works, and actually, a lot of other people believe it as well.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Why would you do it if it didn't work?!
0:10:44 > 0:10:47SPEAKS HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:10:53 > 0:10:56A bit like milk of magnesia.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58What does it do?
0:11:20 > 0:11:24The Amazon contains many thousands of plants with healing properties,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27a natural resource which the international drug companies
0:11:27 > 0:11:32have long exploited, to produce medicines to heal the rest of us.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Pharmaceutical products derived from the rainforest
0:11:38 > 0:11:44are worth some 75 billion a year, and the demand is insatiable.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48Not unnaturally,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Brazil expects to be compensated for the Amazon's invaluable resource.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56To this end, bio-piracy is a crime,
0:11:56 > 0:12:01for which last year, the courts imposed fines of almost 60 million.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29This village is on the edge of a rainforest bonanza.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Brazil's eternal dilemma - how to protect
0:12:32 > 0:12:36and to exploit at the same time.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56I'm some 500-600 miles from Manaus, and still in the Amazon.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Not surprising when you realise it's two million square miles,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03ten times the size of France.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07And I'm with a SWAT team from the environmental agency IBAMA,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11and we're on the trail of illegal loggers.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Luciano, what do you know about this group of illegal loggers
0:13:17 > 0:13:19that you are going to arrest?
0:13:37 > 0:13:41Luciano is at the forefront of the Brazilian government's campaign
0:13:41 > 0:13:45to protect the Amazon rainforest in the province of Mato Grosso.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51We've stopped here, because there are tracks on the side of the road
0:13:51 > 0:13:55which suggest that trucks may have been coming in and out.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59The team in front are in contact with the helicopter,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01who's looking down to see
0:14:01 > 0:14:06whether they can in fact see anyone working or see any equipment there.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Last year, an area even larger than Greater London
0:14:13 > 0:14:16was ravaged by logging or destroyed by bulldozers.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20To combat this, IBAMA has a team in this state alone of 500 officers.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22But it's barely enough.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29You do get a bit of a feeling that this is like looking
0:14:29 > 0:14:34for the proverbial needle in a haystack, huge areas of jungle,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38helicopters to alert you that may not be able to see on the ground.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42You come in on the expectation, the likelihood that maybe,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44maybe there is, maybe there isn't, you don't know.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50RADIO CHATTER
0:14:53 > 0:14:56The Amazon absorbs a quarter of the world's carbon emissions,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58and Luciano and his team therefore
0:14:58 > 0:15:01have a crucial role in combating global warming.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05This is very recent, this opening up of this track,
0:15:05 > 0:15:11and there would be no other reason for it, than illegal logging.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16And then, maybe what they're looking for.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22The team halt a truck heading away from the target area.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51What are they searching this old truck for?
0:16:32 > 0:16:36The three suspects are not exactly forthcoming in their efforts
0:16:36 > 0:16:38to help the police.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06The team eventually finds a shack where the men have been sleeping,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10but as yet, still no evidence they've been felling trees illegally.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13So far, it's another frustrating day for IBAMA.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Getting to the bottom of this is time-consuming,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23way out into the middle of the forest.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28Maybe, maybe not, one small group, hundreds,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32maybe thousands of other groups in the Amazon doing the same thing.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Finally, a dividend for patience.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Luciano and his men find the evidence they need,
0:17:40 > 0:17:45proof that a protected area of forest is being felled illegally.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11The three suspects will be prosecuted. But they're small fry.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Only too often, the big boys that hire them
0:18:14 > 0:18:18to do this dirty work avoid detection altogether.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22There's enough trees coming down legally.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27You look at these and you just magnify this up,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31for the Mato Grosso itself, for Brazil,
0:18:31 > 0:18:36for the whole Amazon region, you get a sense of how much wood
0:18:36 > 0:18:40is being taken out of here because there's a world demand.
0:18:40 > 0:18:46Every tree that is taken out, unless it is replanted with another,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49is a loss,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52a straightforward loss.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17From the interior, I went on to what is now the edge
0:19:17 > 0:19:22of the Amazon rainforest, a cattle town called Alta Floresta.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Brazil is helping to feed the world. It's very big business.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Here, that means ranching.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Cows and cowboys.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51This community is formed by pioneers, grandfathers,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55fathers, children who started to come here in the late '70s,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58they were urged on by the government to do so,
0:19:58 > 0:19:59who promised them that they could
0:19:59 > 0:20:04form a new Jerusalem out of what they described as the green hell
0:20:04 > 0:20:06of the Amazon rainforest.
0:20:11 > 0:20:1430 years ago, the government urged these pioneers to turn
0:20:14 > 0:20:16the forest into fields.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20Now under huge international pressure to save the Amazon,
0:20:20 > 0:20:21Brazil faces a quandary,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24how to exploit a growing global market for food,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28without destroying even more of the forest.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Imagine what it would have been like if the pioneers in Britain
0:20:32 > 0:20:35and America, at the height of the economic growth of those countries,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38had been told by foreign governments,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41"You shouldn't really be doing that, you're damaging the planet."
0:20:41 > 0:20:44They'd have been told, quite simply, to bugger off.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Alta Floresta, the pioneer town, is an entrepreneurial triumph,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59carved out of the Amazon by cutting down trees.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04It's hard to believe that only 30 years ago,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08this was entirely virgin forest.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Now, Alta Floresta is a thriving community of 50,000 people.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16And it's growing, and it wants to grow further.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32I'm on one of the thousands of ranches in this part
0:21:32 > 0:21:37of the Amazon with the owner of the farm, the ranch,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41called Luis, and his nephew, Miguel.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43We're going out to round up some cattle.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49What was this land like when you first came here, Luis?
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Luis and his family were originally urged to bulldoze
0:22:12 > 0:22:1415,000 hectares around Alta Floresta.
0:22:17 > 0:22:2080% of the forest that's cleared in the Amazon is for cattle,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23a 7 billion industry.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48When people say, "Oh, they're destroying the Amazon rainforest
0:22:48 > 0:22:50"and they keep wanting more and more land
0:22:50 > 0:22:54"and the rainforest is precious", what's your reaction to that?
0:23:23 > 0:23:26There are almost 200 million head of cattle in Brazil,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31the largest purveyor of beef to the world, and our appetite is growing.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Seems to me that the world wants it both ways, it wants to save
0:23:40 > 0:23:43the Amazon rainforest and it wants to eat more and more beef.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48You can't do both. You either eat less beef or you do something
0:23:48 > 0:23:51to find a way of eating food that doesn't involve taking more
0:23:51 > 0:23:53and more land from the forest.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56It's a dilemma that Brazil is very well aware of,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59that has yet to be solved.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Two hours from the ranch by road,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29and I went to meet another pioneer in the Amazon.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31Hi, Zack.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44If Brazil has riches above the ground,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47it has untold wealth under the ground.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50In fact, the country is the most important mineral producer
0:24:50 > 0:24:52in the whole continent.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56It's one of the world's great producers of gold.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And I'm here with Zack, who is a gold prospector,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02although he calls himself a fisherman.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17Zack and his crew are divers,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22searching the river bed for tiny deposits of gold locked in the sand.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29It's quite a long way out... and down,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33so he goes down to something like eight metres below the surface...
0:25:35 > 0:25:39..with his vacuum cleaner, which is at the bottom already.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Picks up the vacuum cleaner...
0:25:45 > 0:25:50..and starts to hoover up the bottom of the river.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54You can see the bubbles out there.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57A couple of centuries ago, the gold rush in Brazil
0:25:57 > 0:26:00was every bit as wild as it became in North America.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02With the price rising rapidly over the last decade,
0:26:02 > 0:26:07that spirit is very much alive today.
0:26:07 > 0:26:08Prospecting for gold!
0:26:08 > 0:26:13It's just a mat to me, and for me,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16but for them, there is serious big money in here.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21How much gold do you think you're going to get from here today?
0:26:29 > 0:26:34Roughly 30 grams, they estimate. Approximately 1,500.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38All in this...sand.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40Well, you can't see any of it yet,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43you just can see it yellowing a little bit.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47Until a couple of years ago,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51gold fishers like Zack and his team operated outside the law.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56Now, they're inside the fold, so long as they don't use mercury on their boats to purify the gold
0:26:56 > 0:27:00and they restore the river bed before they move on.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04What was it like when you were illegal,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08how were you seen by other people living in the community?
0:27:19 > 0:27:21How much do you get yourself now?
0:27:27 > 0:27:30So that's quite a good income now?
0:27:37 > 0:27:41In 2010, the price of gold soared, and with it,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45the profits from this river, 20 million a year at the latest count.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52This is how it has been done for centuries.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57And the guys doing this actually therefore belong
0:27:57 > 0:27:59to a really, really old tradition.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07These guys are now able to do what their forebears did, quite legally.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10And good luck to them.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Brazil is also at the cutting edge of modern technologies.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35This plane taking me from Alta Floresta to my next destination
0:28:35 > 0:28:39is made by Embraer, the world's third-largest manufacturer.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43The company has got a rapidly growing market abroad, and at home.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Brazil is 35 times bigger than Britain.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Trying to get anywhere by road in this part of Brazil,
0:28:52 > 0:28:54is virtually impossible.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Either the roads aren't there, or they're so bad, as to be
0:28:58 > 0:29:01virtually unusable, so the only way to get about is by plane.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04And because of the economic growth that Brazil is enjoying,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08the number of airlines is dramatically increasing.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10And the number of routes.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13This airline alone has 84 destinations.
0:29:21 > 0:29:261,000 miles from Alta Floresta is Sao Luis, a very modern
0:29:26 > 0:29:28and extremely busy commercial port.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Last year, 230 million tonnes of iron
0:29:35 > 0:29:38left Sao Luis for destinations around the globe,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42notably to fuel another booming economy, China.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45Brazil's profits from this vital resource are worth
0:29:45 > 0:29:49tens of billions of dollars and growing all the time.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52These vast machines are controlled remotely by people
0:29:52 > 0:29:57way away on computers. Stored here, is a million,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00a million tonnes of iron ore.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03And in a couple of years' time, because of their expansion,
0:30:03 > 0:30:07they'll be able to store two million tonnes for export.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12Jose Filio is operations manager,
0:30:12 > 0:30:17overseeing a doubling of output over the next three years.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26- 16,000 tonnes of iron ore?- Yeah.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33Stored?
0:30:33 > 0:30:36It's a phenomenal amount.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41Biggest iron ore extractor in the world, biggest exporter.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43What does that make you feel?
0:31:00 > 0:31:02It's an amazing sight.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04It looks like brown slurry,
0:31:04 > 0:31:09but of course it's hard iron coming in at such a rate,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12filling up this ship.
0:31:13 > 0:31:1810, 20, 30, 100,000 tonnes of iron ore going all over the world.
0:31:20 > 0:31:27You can't help but be slightly overawed by the extraordinary power of it.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40This country has always been a trading nation.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Among its first major exports was sugar,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46but that required an import, in the form of labour.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49People. Africans. Slaves.
0:31:51 > 0:31:56For many, most Brazilians, their country's role in the slave trade
0:31:56 > 0:32:01belongs to the past, half buried, forgotten, not to be resurrected.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04But for a minority, a very important minority,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07it doesn't belong to the past at all.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09It's very much part of the living present.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18A ferry ride across the bay from Sao Luis takes you right into that present.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21I'm heading for a community descended from the slaves.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Nearly 4m of them who were brought here from Africa
0:32:24 > 0:32:28from the 16th until the last half of the 19th century.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39I'm on my way by taxi to a settlement called Mamuna,
0:32:39 > 0:32:45which because of where it is and what it is, is the source of real political tension,
0:32:45 > 0:32:51and it pinpoints a fundamental dilemma for the government of Brazil.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56Mamuna is a quilombo,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01a settlement founded by runaway slaves two centuries ago.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Some 3,000 of these villages still survive.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14It's harvest time, and half Mamuna is out gathering the crops.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28This is manioc. Cassava as it's called in some parts of the world.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33It's the staple diet here, as in many other parts of the country.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Doesn't take long, does it, to get together quite a lot?
0:33:39 > 0:33:42Actually, it's not too difficult.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44And then you go...?
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Militina Serejo is the head of the village.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57Her passion is to sustain the link between her people and their African forebears.
0:33:57 > 0:34:03You originate from the slave community that was brought here.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08Is that sense of being descendants of those people very important?
0:34:32 > 0:34:34But they have a problem.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Their land is not only precious to them,
0:34:37 > 0:34:42but valuable real estate as well, and the government wants it.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47This land, this life, is obviously very, very important to you.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Do you have to fight to protect it?
0:35:15 > 0:35:19On the edge of the quilombo, there's a satellite launch site.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Brazil wants to expand it. Mamuna is in the way.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30This issue perfectly illustrates the dilemmas facing Brazil.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34On the one hand, it wants to be a leading space power in the 21st-century.
0:35:34 > 0:35:41On the other, the constitution and, so far, the law protects the rights of the people who live here.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45There is a tremendous and fierce political struggle going on.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48The way in which it's resolved will surely define
0:35:48 > 0:35:52the kind of nation Brazil is going to become.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02In 2008, the courts sided with Mamuna, but the battle is far from over.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Meanwhile, the quilombo clings on to its ancient African traditions.
0:36:14 > 0:36:19It smells just like a farmhouse cheese being prepared.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23WOMAN LAUGHS
0:36:23 > 0:36:26It's good.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Why do you have to do all of this? It looks very complicated.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40So if I ate this now, I would be poisoned?
0:36:43 > 0:36:45I won't.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50The manioc root contains cyanide, so after milling,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53the meal is stuffed into the snake-like tapiti
0:36:53 > 0:36:59which is then stretched tight until all the toxins have been forced out.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Such a wonderful process.
0:37:03 > 0:37:09People talk about timeless, timeless ways of doing things. This really is timeless.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13It goes back so far that no-one can remember when it first began,
0:37:13 > 0:37:19but...if you go to Africa,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23you can see very much the same process under way.
0:37:25 > 0:37:30The real evidence that this came with the slaves centuries ago
0:37:30 > 0:37:36and is now part of the tradition of the free blacks of Brazil.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48In Mamuna, they are both celebrating the harvest
0:37:48 > 0:37:50and asserting their right to be here.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53The black population of Brazil numbers more than 14 million,
0:37:53 > 0:37:57and as most of them are only too well aware,
0:37:57 > 0:38:03in today's Brazil, as in the past, they still tend to be at or near the bottom of the economic pile.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Brazil prides itself on being colour-blind.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42Everyone is equal under the law.
0:38:42 > 0:38:49But there's a long way to go before that translates into genuine equality of respect and opportunity.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59The last leg of my South American journey,
0:38:59 > 0:39:04and perhaps the most charismatic city in the whole continent, let alone Brazil.
0:39:14 > 0:39:201,400 miles further south, and again there's an entirely new world.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23It's a stunning view.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31More people visit Rio than any other city in the southern hemisphere.
0:39:31 > 0:39:373.5 million a year at the latest count, and it's easy to see why.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58Rio invites advertising overdrive.
0:39:58 > 0:40:04The city of sun, sea, sand and sex, and it's got plenty of all that.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09If you live here, you think it's the best city in all the world.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14And as if to prove the point, you've been awarded the final of the World Cup in 2014
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and two years later, the Olympic games.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Rio is growing even faster than the rest of the country.
0:40:24 > 0:40:29A boost, were it needed, to the city's boundless self-confidence.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34And it has a theme song, one of the best-known melodies in all the world.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37# Tall and tan and young and lovely
0:40:37 > 0:40:41# The girl from Ipanema goes walking... #
0:40:41 > 0:40:46A song about a girl who came past a cafe every morning,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49and a composer who sat watching her, never speaking.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52# When she walks, she's like a samba
0:40:52 > 0:40:58# That swings so cool and sways so gentle that when she passes... #
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Helo Pinheiro was that girl, and Rio is eternally grateful to her.
0:41:06 > 0:41:11- Very nice to see you. - How are you?- Very well. You too?
0:41:11 > 0:41:14How did it happen? How were you the girl from Ipanema?
0:41:14 > 0:41:18I inspired this song in 1962,
0:41:18 > 0:41:22but three years after the song blew up,
0:41:22 > 0:41:29and everybody wants to know who's the girl from Ipanema.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35To begin with, her identity was a mystery.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39Girls came forward from all over the city, claiming to be THE girl,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43until the songwriter finally revealed the name of the genuine article.
0:41:43 > 0:41:49Why is everyone having their pictures taken, coming up and talking to the girl from Ipanema?
0:41:49 > 0:41:53She's a cultural icon and it's the moment when the world discovered Brazil.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57Brazil got on the map and it was emblematised by the music,
0:41:57 > 0:42:02by a new way of being, the bossa nova revolutionised,
0:42:02 > 0:42:09and all of a sudden you have one person that can become the image, and she was that person.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13Helo has become a symbol of Rio's style and panache,
0:42:13 > 0:42:16and half the country seems to be in love with her.
0:42:45 > 0:42:51The Girl From Ipanema plays back an image of Rio that's seduced half the world.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55Youth and beauty, sensuality and romance, a paradise on Earth.
0:43:00 > 0:43:06But there's another Rio which fears that this paradise on Earth is going to Hell in a handcart.
0:43:13 > 0:43:21The Catholic cathedral in Rio, symbol of the great authority once held by the Church in Brazil,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23but it no longer holds sway.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Brazil still boasts the largest Catholic communion in the world,
0:43:29 > 0:43:35but the inflexibility of its moral edicts, its outward forms and dated style are out of fashion.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39As elsewhere in the world, the faithful are deserting in droves.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43And there's another equally alarming challenge.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49An upstart alternative for which Father Eduardo da Costa can barely disguise his disdain.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31Desertion and subversion, either way a haemorrhage of ecclesiastical authority,
0:44:31 > 0:44:35which has left the Catholic hierarchy floundering.
0:44:48 > 0:44:55I left town to find out more about the ways in which the new order is challenging the old.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00The Reborn In Christ Church is an evangelical pretender to the Catholic crown,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and it already claims more than a million members.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07There's a congregation in here of some 1,500 people,
0:45:07 > 0:45:10many of whom have never been into a church before,
0:45:10 > 0:45:17but, instead of a high altar in the middle, there's a cage.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24And they're here to watch martial arts.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27HE SPEAKS BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
0:45:33 > 0:45:37To start proceedings, the word of the Lord.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43Pastor Degao is 28, a former drug addict who found Jesus as a teenager.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47He's now a business consultant with his own fashion label.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51Fight nights for the faith are his speciality.
0:45:55 > 0:46:01The fighters are celebrities, recruited to deliver converts to an evangelical movement
0:46:01 > 0:46:06whose moral attitudes are otherwise every bit as traditional as the Catholic Church.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09It is quite bizarre.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Gentle Jesus meek and mild, it is not.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14It's really hardcore.
0:46:20 > 0:46:26This is extreme, and the Catholic Church seems to have no answer to it,
0:46:26 > 0:46:30which is remarkable when you think of how powerfully embedded
0:46:30 > 0:46:34the Church was in the whole life of this nation until very recently.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17In a country, you hope, where everyone will be an evangelical Christian?
0:48:14 > 0:48:17Bizarre it may be, but there's no doubt at all
0:48:17 > 0:48:20this born-again movement is now a force to be reckoned with.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Though it leaves me bewildered, not bewitched.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41Brazil is phenomenally placed to seize the 21st century.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44The country is blessed with great wealth. It's open and stable.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48It has no enemies and many friends, and it has the Olympics.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51But, and there's a very big but,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55which you can find in the very heart of the city.
0:48:57 > 0:49:04Probably the greatest challenge facing Brazil is the huge gulf between the rich and the poor.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06Poverty, extreme poverty,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11the President has said, "shames the nation and must be eliminated".
0:49:11 > 0:49:15For Rio, that means doing something about these favelas,
0:49:15 > 0:49:19which surround the city, and look down accusingly on the wealth below.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27After decades of neglect, the government has acted,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29and with decisive impact.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35The favelas, the slums, had been taken over by drug barons
0:49:35 > 0:49:41whose gangs ruled their fiefdoms, in which some 2 million people live, with pitiless brutality.
0:49:45 > 0:49:50This favela, the Alemao complex, was one of the worst.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54Then, just over a year ago, the military invaded, guns blazing.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57Their purpose, pacification.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06I'm going to see a young guy who actually saw what happened
0:50:06 > 0:50:12from within a favela when the army and police moved in,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14and he tweeted what he was seeing,
0:50:14 > 0:50:18and became a household name throughout Brazil as a result.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Rene Silva is 17 years old and he lives in Alemao.
0:50:22 > 0:50:27He's a journalist. His tweets reported a street-by-street battle
0:50:27 > 0:50:30far too dangerous for conventional media to reach.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34How did you find out what was going on?
0:51:13 > 0:51:18So far, the military has evicted the gangs from some 17 of Rio's favelas, but that's only a start.
0:51:18 > 0:51:23The peace is fragile, the future uncertain.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27The gangs may be at bay but they certainly aren't broken.
0:51:27 > 0:51:28Yet there are signs of hope.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32Business is picking up and there's a new bank to prove it.
0:51:32 > 0:51:37Is it making a big difference that you've got the bank here?
0:51:57 > 0:52:01Is the community happier now?
0:52:16 > 0:52:22Those traditions provided absolute order in return for unswerving obedience.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26The downside was fear. The upside, an absence of anarchy.
0:52:38 > 0:52:44Until very recently, Carlos was an enforcer for one of the most fearsome gangs in Rio.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47He knows exactly how their racket works.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14But the people have to be absolutely obedient to the boss,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18otherwise the risk is that they get a gun in their head? Is that correct?
0:53:38 > 0:53:44Last year, realising that for once the authorities were in earnest, Carlos switched sides.
0:54:05 > 0:54:12Today, Carlos has a key role in a young project to lure erstwhile criminals away from the gangs
0:54:12 > 0:54:14by finding them proper jobs.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18The programme is proving remarkably successful, but there's still a long way to go.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Many favelas have yet to be liberated.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38The government wants to clean out the favelas in time for the World Cup.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41It might seem like window-dressing, but there's a plan of action.
0:54:41 > 0:54:47Not only to break the gangs, but to remove the stain of poverty and violence from the face of Rio.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Walking through these narrow alleys, it's very easy to imagine
0:54:57 > 0:55:00that just over a year ago they were controlled by gunmen.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04It would've been impossible for me to come in here without the permission of the big boss.
0:55:04 > 0:55:10Now, in more and more favelas, the gangs have been replaced by the police.
0:55:43 > 0:55:49Robson da Silva commands a new unit set up to re-establish order in pacified communities
0:55:49 > 0:55:51with goodwill, not brutality.
0:55:51 > 0:55:57But first, he had to confront his own rogue officers on the payroll of gangland bosses.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Was it true there was a lot of corruption then in the police force?
0:56:24 > 0:56:30Is it better with the drug gangs out or does it not make much difference?
0:56:55 > 0:57:00Commander Robson has no doubt the pacification programme will make an impact,
0:57:00 > 0:57:05but only if it's sustained with a real and radical sense of purpose.
0:57:46 > 0:57:51If Brazil is serious about this, it'll send a powerful message to the entire continent
0:57:51 > 0:57:55that great wealth and social justice are allies, not adversaries,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and that, for this superpower in the making,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01this is at the very heart of the matter.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05A prospect which would be an inspiration for the peoples of all South America.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12There's an old quip, which is still doing the rounds,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16that Brazil is the country of the future and always will be,
0:58:16 > 0:58:19but for me that rather misses the point.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23It's an old-world view, and this is the new world.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Of course, Brazil has huge challenges and dilemmas
0:58:26 > 0:58:30and no-one knows when, if, and how these will be overcome.
0:58:30 > 0:58:36But this nation has all the energy, all the enthusiasm,
0:58:36 > 0:58:42all the drive and all the talent to take its own way.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45As they say themselves, the Brazilian way.
0:59:00 > 0:59:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:03 > 0:59:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk