I have a few guys from Brazil in the team, and they are pretty vocal on safety issues. Kidnapping kids is rather common, and one of those guys almost became a victim when he was leaving school once. The guys saw he has nothing valuable on him and let him go.
The other guy told his neighbour is getting death threats, and a bunch of gangstaz come to his house at night, shooting in the air and drop explosives into his garden because his neighbour's ex is now hooking up with some gang boss, and wants part of his property she didn't get from divorce. The police does not want to intervent, and it's rather usual for police to do nothing in those cases.
The guys also told that if you're travelling by car you should avoid country roads in most areas by all means, cause best case you will end up w/o a car.