‘We feel angry – and we have reason to be’: Brazil’s resurgent punk scene is a howl of outrage at injustice

Repressão Social jam in a rehearsal room in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Alan Lima/The Guardian

As black-clad police combatants charged into the hillside favela and opened fire, a black-clad punk scurried out of the community in the opposite direction, his hands trembling from fright.

“Holy shit! All those guns! Things are getting ugly!” spluttered Rodrigo Cilirio, the founder and bassist of one of Rio’s most enduring punk bands, as he took cover behind a tree.