SAO PAULO, Feb 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Emaciated Brazilian crack addicts danced

to samba music in a rundown part of Sao Paulo as a very different kind of
Carnival parade filled the street.

Brazil's legendary street party, which draws people from around the world and
is known for its glittering floats and dance troupes, begins February 9.

But parades in what is called the pre-Carnival period are taking place on
weekends, and Claudio Rogerio, a drug user who is missing his two front
teeth, toots on a whistle as he leads a drum and tambourine corps marching in
one of these early processions.

This one has taken place every year since 2015 in a sad part of Brazil's
largest city called Cracolandia -- Crackland -- which is home to many crack
addicts who live in the street.

The founder of the parade, a group called Blocolandia, has run the procession
every year but it was Rogerio's idea to add crack addict percussionists to
the roving musical show.

"We are not just drug addicts. We are intelligent people who like music,"
Rogerio, wearing a black baseball cap backward, told AFP during the parade
Saturday.

Rogerio still uses crack but no longer lives in the street, as he did for
years, residing instead in housing paid by a social welfare program.

With the Blocolandia parade he says it is like going back to his childhood in
Vila Formosa, a Sao Paulo district known for its samba schools that take part
in the much bigger Carnival spectacle.

Nearby in the parade stands a performer who calls herself MC Docinho, who
smiles and sings. She recovered from crack addiction but did not want to
sever her links with Cracolandia.

"Society thinks these people are dirty, that they are worth nothing. But I --
I am clean today -- I know what they are worth, their stories. And I
absolutely want to be present to preserve this connection," said this mother
of five.

The neighborhood, often hit by police raids, remains under tight surveillance
as police with rifles monitor the parade.

"Carnival is a great time to shatter taboos and show society that there are
people who dance samba, who sing, who have talent to create language and who
have their own stories," said Laura Shdior, a psychologist who came to the
parade.

"They are not the zombies that society thinks they are," she said.