The economy of stolen cars in São Paulo: an ethnographic look at the reproduction of inequalities and violence in Latin America

Abstract

In Brazil, around 500,000 vehicles are stolen every year, 45% of them in São Paulo. In the case of cars, the destinations are well known – junkyards, auto parts shops, borders, auctions, resale, and uses in other criminal activities. This article traces the trajectory of a stolen and dismantled 2018 Ford Ka in São Paulo and debates the regulation of illegal economies. We will learn what effects the money from illegal economies has on the legal ones, but also on the dynamics of political reproduction of inequalities and urban violence in São Paulo. The article is based on a multi-sited, collective ethnography developed in Brazil from 2015-2020.