“A cracolândia It’s over and it won’t come back.” This was how the vice-governor of São Paulo, Felicio Ramuth (PSD), defined the current situation of the region in the center of the capital, known for the large flow of crack usersduring an interview with CNN Arena this Monday (17).
but stated that nothing compares to the previous scenario, when more than 3,000 people gathered in the Street of Protestantsin the Santa Ifigênia region.
According to him, the current groups, of eight to ten people, are “very small” and are under monitoring by the state government in partnership with City Hall.
“We still have small concentrations in Barra Funda, Ceagesp and [avenida] Roberto Marinho, but very different from what constituted a cracolândia, which was open-air commerce and consumption, the best place in the world. Brazil to hide, whether from police or family,” he said.
Ramuth says that the government celebrates the end of that large concentration that lasted for 30 years and where, according to him, “the State had no presence”. He credits the change to actions initiated in 2023, under the governor’s administration Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), which resulted in the arrest of more than 1,500 drug dealers and more than 20,000 hospitalizations of addicts.
“What existed there was a space in which the State was not present, health, social assistance and public security were absent,” he said. “There was a methodology and a separation between traffickers e users.”
In total, more than 40 rescue operations were carried out. The teams identified a rotation of visitors: some accepted care and hospitalization, while another group remained circulating. With this, the government mapped different profiles between users who remained in the region during the day and those who appeared at night.
According to Ramuth, the operations contributed to a 63% drop in robberies around Rua dos Protestantes. Still, he warned of a broader problem facing the city: Brazilian legislation.
“I don’t know any receiver who has spent more than five days in jail. We have receivers who have been arrested more than ten times,” he said. “As long as we are not tougher on the recipients, we will continue to run this risk, regardless of social class.”
