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#61
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Dead reporter unmasked Rio's macabre underworld
http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/june...2682E9E71.html
Thursday, June 13, 2002 - Web posted at 10:20:39 am GMT Dead reporter unmasked Rio's macabre underworld RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, June 13 (Reuters) - The murder of a leading Brazilian reporter who worked on a story about sex abuse and drugs in a Rio de Janeiro slum shone a spotlight on the thin line dividing the city's normal life from macabre underworld where drug gangs reign. Answering accusations by reporter Tim Lopes' relatives that his employer Globo television had failed to protect him, Globo editors said Lopes was reporting in a public place, in a popular neighborhood, and not on a clandestine event. Indeed, hillside shantytowns that sprawl above the city's picturesque skyline are home to hundreds of thousands of people who live in misery but earn their bread honestly working as cleaning maids, waiters and elevator boys in the city. But dozens of gangs of gun-toting hoodlums who run the lucrative drug and arms trade also operate in the slums. Lopes, winner of the prestigious Esso prize for television journalists last year for a report on an open-air drugs market, was this time investigating a tip-off from residents of a slum about drugs and sex abuse during wild dance parties. Lopes, 51, had entered the Cruzeiro slum four times, twice reporting with a hidden camera. On June 9, a week after Lopes went missing, Rio police said a drug lord known as Elias "the Mad" had tortured him and then shot him to death. Police arrested four suspects on Sunday and received the evidence from them. Elias, who received his nickname for his extremely violent methods, is at large. Charred fragments and traces of blood were found in a cave near the slum last week. RISKY ASSIGNMENTS Lopes' brother-in-law Andre Martins accused Globo of sending Lopes to risky assignments and failing to protect him. "He risked a lot, but he always acted on Globo's consent, fulfilling its orders. It's the channel that has to evaluate risks, not the reporter," Martins, in tears, told Reuters. Workers Party parliamentary deputy Carlos Minc said some 700,000 people among Rio's 8 million live in slums run by drug gangs "in a land without a state." "They have the law of silence, curfew and have to produce foot soldiers for gang wars," he said. "It's a return to barbarian times." Drug gangs often outnumber and outgun the police force, and police are accused of being on the bandits' payroll. "The important thing is that residents were looking for help in the media and not public authorities ... and it seems that we now cannot do our work anymore," said Francisco Otavio, a colleague of Lopes who also reports on crime. "There used to be certain respect for journalists up the hill (in the slums) that allowed peaceful coexistence, but now we run the risk of turning into a Medellin," Otavio said, referring to the crime-ridden Colombian city notorious for being the base of a drug cartel. Lopes' murder was the first killing of a journalist from a nationwide media outlet by drug gangs in Brazil, and prompted expressions of indignation and concern by local and international media organizations. KILLINGS AND DANCE PARTIES DNA tests of the remains and blood will be ready this week, police said, but evidence points that it was Lopes' body been burnt in the cave after he was shot, police said. Detective Sergio Falante said the cave served as the venue for killings in which victims' bodies are squeezed into several car tires filled with gasoline and set on fire. "Bandits call it a microwave and use it quite a lot with their enemies," he said. "It was hard to tell whether we were dealing with human remains before we found teeth in the mess." Congressman Minc likened the method to those in Nazi death camps. "Those who stand up against crime are being burnt in the oven, like in Auschwitz," he said. At the same time, police said on Wednesday they had found another body in a clandestine slum cemetery and they were checking if that could be Lopes. Globo said Lopes was investigating a tip-off from slum residents that drug gangs were hosting wild dance parties, known as "bailes funk," at which drugs and sex flowed freely to lure new clients from the city below. "It seems they organized some kind of an erotic show in which they offered young girls from the favela," Otavio said. Bailes features loud music similar to rap, sometimes with songs that call for killing informants or police, and youths staging mano-a-mano fights to its beat. WORKING ON THE EDGE Lopes' colleagues and police said the journalist must have had an agreement with the drug lords in order to simply enter the slum. Strangers are not allowed in, and it is not uncommon for trespassers to never return from a slum. "You have to protect yourself by a treaty with the slum lords, but I imagine filming with a microcamera wasn't part of any treaty," Otavio said. "Tim always worked on the edge." Just as in the case of the drugs market, Lopes, who was married and had a son from a previous marriage, took a spy camera that can be hidden in clothes on his latest assignment, his colleagues said. "I'm sure bandits marked him to die since his program about the drug market, which brought serious damage to them," said Falante, adding that the slum where the first story was filmed and Cruzeiro were run by allied gangs. The Association of Brazilian Newspapers said Lopes' death would not stop investigative reporters from doing their jobs. "We declare that this tragedy will not stop us. As a tribute to our slain colleague and to all Brazilian journalists, we reiterate the commitment to truth that is our very reason for being," it said in a statement. Nampa-Reuters "B H" wrote in message ... I think PETER PAN refers to my posting about crime/pickpocket aviodance guide in a thread further down here (rec.travel.latin-america). I was the one who experienced the problem with the self-appointed parking attendant. I think there are at least two kinds of parking attendants. Official ones (I think I have heard that they have som kind of cloth or id to be sure they are official) and self-appointed ones. The one I met certainly looked highly unofficial to say the least. But from there to say that he is into some organised crime and mafia is taking it a bit far (but of course I do not know that). Can anyone shed some light on the facts here? Are there official and self-appointed parking attendants, or just official ones in Rio? I think I know the answer, but would like a more qualified statement than my own here. Borge "Kurko" wrote in message news 3. In 3rd world countries there are JOBS like parking attendants. These guys have actually licence to operate as such (atleast in Rio they do). There is no MAFIA involved here, just some people trying to get their livelihood with honest way (read not robbing the tourists). |
#62
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Brazil's Escalating Role in the Drug War
http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia122.htm
July 15, 2002 Brazil's Escalating Role in the Drug War by Ronald J. Morgan Brazil began bolstering its border security almost as soon as Plan Colombia surfaced in 1999. After three years of military expansion, the Brazil-Colombia border is bristling with new installations. Among them is a new air force base, a naval base, and a set of border platoons stretching from Tabatinga through an area known as the Dog´s Head, where Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil meet. A new jungle brigade based in the Amazon city of Tefe provides support for the 2,500 troops stationed along the 1,000-mile border. These ground forces are supplemented with naval and marine units as well as aircraft at the new Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira airbase. The Brazilian military has also been busy putting in new roads, bridges, schools, health clinics, water wells and riverboat docks throughout the heavily indigenous area with a population of some 100,000. The Brazilian buildup, part of a revamped older border development program know as Calha Norte, includes $14.5 million in military security spending and $10.5 million in social development, most of it spent in the Colombian border region. The government has also dispatched to the border a 200-man federal police task force known as Operation Cobra to further bolster security and fight drug trafficking. Brazil says its programs are preventive medicine aimed at protecting the Amazon and that most activities are directed at controlling drug trafficking, stopping illegal logging, and clearing out poaching gold miners. As early as 1996, Brazil and the Raytheon Corporation began constructing a $1.4 billion radar system called System for Amazon Surveillance (SIVAM). Announced with much fanfare at the 1992 Rio Earth Conference, the project is about 70 percent complete and will be inaugurated in Manaus on July 25. This system uses radar stations, air reconnaissance and some satellite support to monitor air traffic, maritime movement, border activity, and intercept communications of all types. SIVAM will also keep track of weather patterns and land use, while making rural telecommunications in the Amazon more efficient. While originally designed to save the Amazon rainforest from various types of abuse, it is expected that its Manta FOL-type reconnaissance abilities will also be used to stop drug pilots from entering Brazil and provide timely information to border units. The Brazilian air force estimates that some 200 planes flew into Brazil illegally in 2001 and is calling for the government to issue a shoot down regulation similar to the type in place in Colombia and Peru. Last year, the U.S.-Peruvian program resulted in the accidental shooting down of a missionary plane. Brazil stressed that it was not interested in becoming part of the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia when the border buildup began. In October 2000, Admiral Hector Blecker, Brazil's assistant chief of intelligence, told the Brazilian congress that while it was obvious the probable impact of Plan Colombia would require Brazil undertake police, environmental and social action programs in the border area, "the idea of a multinational military operation in the Brazilian Amazon is unacceptable." During the congressional hearings it was stressed that the environmental impact to the Brazilian Amazon from Colombian aerial spraying, and the possible use of a mycoherbicide could destroy legitimate crop production along Brazil's jungle rivers. Blecker is concerned that "chemical agents such as glyphosate and biological agents such as fusarium oxysporum in the Putumayo and Caquetá rivers will flow into the Ica and Japura rivers respectively." But just as the United States originally claimed that Plan Colombia would confine itself to fighting drug trafficking but is now expanding to include counterinsurgency operations, Brazil role in the war on drugs has also experienced mission creep. Recent air, land, and sea maneuvers along the Brazil-Colombia border involving 4,000 men sent a clear signal that Brazil intends to use force to keep guerrillas and drug traffickers out of its territory. United States involvement on the Brazilian side of the border is also ratcheting up. In September 2001, Brazil signed a bilateral letter of agreement with the United States for counternarcotics activities that call for mutual cooperation and U.S. aid for Operation Cobra and other counter drug trafficking operations. The agreement also pumps funds into the newly created National Secretariat for Public Security, which has unified control over Brazil's Federal and local police forces. Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, while still officially claiming that Brazil is not involved in Plan Colombia, strongly endorsed Colombian President Andrés Pastrana's decision earlier this year to terminate the demilitarized zone granted to the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Cardoso also called the election of Alvaro Uribe in May a "clear example of the vigor of democratic ideas in South America." Despite Brazilian contentions to the contrary, South America's biggest and most prosperous country is slipping deeper into the drug war and the Colombian Conflict. In March, Brazilian military officers visited the Pentagon where they exchanged views with U.S. officers and gave presentations on Brazil's border security and development program. On a recent visit to Brazil, Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, expressed Washington's desire for internationalizing intervention in Colombia's conflict, "We think that the threat to Colombia's democracy is a common threat not just to the United States and Brazil, but to the whole Hemisphere. And, if countries are worried about the spillover effect of, say, 'Plan Colombia', they should be even more worried about the effect of not stopping the terrorists and the narcotics traffickers inside Colombian borders." Operation Cobra is also growing in scope and sophistication. In December, Brazil opened a regional intelligence center at Tabatinga whose mission is to sort through intelligence on border activities, which it will then share with Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and the United States. Additionally, Brazil has completed work on seven new police installations along the border stretching from Tabatinga to Vila Bittencourt. Brazil has both shed blood and suffered casualties along the Colombian border. In February Brazilian troops attacked a boat with suspected FARC guerrillas, killing six persons near Apoporis. The same month a Brazilian soldier disappeared under unclear circumstances. In March, 197 indigenous persons of the Maku nation sought refuge at Vila Bittencourt charging that the FARC had threatened them. During maneuvers in May, Brazilian soldiers suffered two casualties--one wounding of a soldier outside Tabatinga apparently involved Colombians, while another soldier disappeared along the Rio Negro. Colonel Roberto de Paula Avelino, who manages Calha Norte from a campus-like building in Brasilia, downplays the incidents, claiming the border area is fairly quiet despite the FARC presence on the Colombian side. He also believes that a major incursion by uniformed FARC guerrillas is unlikely, "I don´t think the FARC is interested in making a new enemy." De Paula Avelino's analysis stands in sharp contrast to recent statements about Colombia's illegal armed groups made by Reich, "If these people work to ever gain control over larger parts of Colombian territory, I think there is no doubt that they would take their business, which is narcotics and terrorism, to other countries. I don't think they are only interested in taking control by force of Colombia. I don't think they know any borders. Terrorists sans frontiers, to coin a phrase." Not surprisingly, the FARC disagrees with Reich's analysis. Oliverio Medna, the FARC International Committee representative in Brasilia, said FARC commanders have been ordered to keep their troops out of neighboring countries. "We are hoping for reciprocity from the neighboring governments. Reciprocity in what sense? If we don´t cause problems in the territories of the neighboring countries, that their governments will abstain from intervening and getting mixed up in the internal affairs of Colombia. We are not a problem for any state other than Colombia." Medna claims that talk of FARC border incursions is part of a policy aimed at discrediting the rebel group, "If a tree falls in the Ecuadorian jungle, they says its the FARC's fault. If in Peru a cow shows up dead in the morning, it's the FARC. Our plans do not include intervention in the territory of any country." Alcides Costa Vaz, an international relations professor at the University of Brazil, says Colombia is not a hot political issue in Brazil, "Issues of national security have ranked very low on the domestic political agenda. There is not a very strong position in public opinion. The last few years economic issues have ranked very high." He went on to stress that, "So far Brazil has resisted the idea of having a active role," but if Colombia asks for regional alliances and cooperation, Costa Vaz believes Brazil will probably cooperate. Whatever the semantics, Brazil is involved in the Colombian conflict through the sharing of intelligence and an escalation of military and police activities inside Brazil aimed at stopping drug and arms trafficking and preventing a spillover of the violence. This is likely to continue even if the leftist Workers Party candidate Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva wins the fall elections for the presidency. Workers Party Senator Tião Viana, who represents the Amazon state of Acre, said the party opposes U.S. bases and U.S. troops in Brazil but supports exchange of intelligence, training, and cooperation in operations as long as Brazilians execute them. "In the Brazilian Amazon there's a clandestine infiltration of groups from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia involved in drug trafficking and clandestine wood extraction," Viana said. "The Amazon is very unprotected. There's a need for troops and intelligence operations." The Cobra Program is a natural for U.S. involvement, and cooperation between the two countries began to increase last year when DEA agents toured Brazil's Amazon operations. Brazilian Federal Police and the DEA also cooperated in the arrest in Colombia of Brazilian drug lord Luis Fernando da Costa, know as Fernando Beira-Mar (Seaside Freddy) and the bust a few months later of his top lieutenant Leomar Olviera Barbosa in Paraguay. According to recent congressional testimony by DEA chief Asa Hutchinson, DEA agents in Colombia and Brazil are currently working to capture of Tomas Molina Caracas of the 16th Front of the FARC. The DEA is also fielding special teams of DEA and Brazilian police to investigate money laundering. It has been estimated that as much as 25 percent of Colombian drug money may be hidden in Brazilian accounts. Enticing Brazil into greater cooperation may be the increased availability of funds for equipment, training, operations and development projects, and a decade-long growth in domestic drug use and drug-related violence. The Bush administration's Andean Regional Initiative calls for Brazil to receive $6 million in counterdrug assistance and $12.6 million in social development funds this year, while a 2003 Bush administration request calls for another $12 million in counternarcotics funds. Recently, the presidents of Brazil, Peru and Ecuador joined together to request $1.3 billion from the Inter-American Development Bank for use in border social programs aimed at dealing with the spillover from Plan Colombia. President Cardoso raised the fight against drugs to front burner status in a national speech June 19 when he compared it to the country's earlier struggle against hyperinflation. At the same time the government released a study estimating that there were 1.7 million cocaine addicts in Brazil. Both increased domestic consumption and the creation of cocaine processing centers in Brazil are seen as potentially undermining U.S. drug war efforts. Brazilian traffickers are building a niche for themselves in designer drugs, while the nation's large chemical industry provides an opportunity to obtain drug-processing chemicals. Drug traffickers are active and powerful throughout the country. A 2001 Congressional inquiry into drug trafficking and impunity called for the indictment of 800 persons, among them politicians and police. Fearful that Brazil could rival the U.S. and Europe as a drug market, the United States has been tinkering with Brazil's drug policies. It has jointly designed with Brazil a new series of drug courts and it finances a U.S.-style DARE school drug prevention program. It is also backing a study of Brazilian attitudes toward drug use. Drugs are seen as the fuel for the country's tremendous criminal violence problem and increase in youth murders. In Rio de Janeiro some 10,000 persons are alleged to be active in local drug distribution and street sales. According to a study by the International Labor Organization, many of the persons involved are children. "What you find is that since 1995 more children have taken up drug trafficking. They start as young as eight years old," said Pedro Americo F. Oliveira, head of the ILO Child Labor section in Brazil. "They come from the poorest of the poor. They are one-parent families. The parent works and the child doesn't go to school." What is the average life expectancy for a child drug dealer? One year, says Oliveira. According to a recent Human Rights Watch report the situation is exacerbated by the regular use of torture and murder by the Brazilian police forces. The gruesome killing of Brazilian Investigative Journalist Tim Lopez by a drug trafficking gang has sparked a police crackdown in the Rio de Janeiro favelas that may prove to be a prototype for harsh action to come. A combined task force launched by the federal government includes military intelligence units and the use of combined federal and local police squads. Some people are advocating military occupation of many of Brazil's troubled urban areas. The rapid escalation of the drug war in the last year by the Cardoso administration runs the risk of exacerbating tinder box social conditions. Costa Vaz warns that over-militarization of the drug war, especially in poor neighborhoods, will backfire unless enforcement programs are designed carefully. "We have a very sensitive and dangerous domestic situation. What is going on in Rio right now is generating a situation of social conflict. The door to civil war will open if you bring in the military. We will not solve Colombia's problems, we will probably reproduce them." Ronald J. Morgan is a freelance writer who focuses on Latin America. This article originally appeared in Colombia Report, an online journal that was published by the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA). "B H" wrote in message ... I think PETER PAN refers to my posting about crime/pickpocket aviodance guide in a thread further down here (rec.travel.latin-america). I was the one who experienced the problem with the self-appointed parking attendant. I think there are at least two kinds of parking attendants. Official ones (I think I have heard that they have som kind of cloth or id to be sure they are official) and self-appointed ones. The one I met certainly looked highly unofficial to say the least. But from there to say that he is into some organised crime and mafia is taking it a bit far (but of course I do not know that). Can anyone shed some light on the facts here? Are there official and self-appointed parking attendants, or just official ones in Rio? I think I know the answer, but would like a more qualified statement than my own here. Borge "Kurko" wrote in message news 3. In 3rd world countries there are JOBS like parking attendants. These guys have actually licence to operate as such (atleast in Rio they do). There is no MAFIA involved here, just some people trying to get their livelihood with honest way (read not robbing the tourists). |
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List names most dangerous stops for business travelers
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getawa...99/dngr28.html
January 28, 1999 List names most dangerous stops for business travelers POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES Air Security International, a 10-year-old Houston company that provides security services for traveling executives, has issued a list of what it considered last year to be the most dangerous business-travel destinations in the world. The company's listing of travel dangers is largely based on the detailed reports of paid agents -- including employees of airports and international corporations, and owners of overseas businesses -- working in the field. The dangerous destinations are divided into four risk categories: crime, kidnapping, political violence and wars or insurgencies. The only destination to appear in all four categories is Colombia. That country is cited as the one with the most kidnappings, as home to "the longest insurgency in the Western Hemisphere," and for its high crime rate exacerbated by the cocaine trade, as well as bombings, assassinations, guerrilla insurgencies and power struggles among drug lords, politicians, judges and the military. The 10 places cited for their dangerously high crime rate are Johannesburg ("carjackings, robberies and assaults continue unabated"), Mexico City (corrupt police and "taxi-related crime"), Tijuana ("getting a reputation as the next Medellin"), Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Papua New Guinea (gangs armed with high-powered rifles, machetes, even grenade launchers), Kazakhstan ("corrupt officials and police impostors continue to target foreigners"), Lagos (pickpocketing to armed robbery and murder), Moscow and Colombia. The company found a heightened threat of kidnapping in five places. Besides Colombia, they were the Caucasus region of Russia ("extremely common"), Mexico ("rings operate throughout the country"), the Philippines (where it's on the decline, but still prevalent) and Yemen (tribesmen seeking government concessions use foreigners as bargaining chips). The political-violence category cites Bangladesh, where labor strife has been known to turn violent; Indonesia, where violence between security forces and demonstrators still flares on occasion; Pakistan, where "more than 4,000 people have died in ethnic, sectarian and political violence in Karachi since 1995" and, yes, Colombia. "B H" wrote in message ... I think PETER PAN refers to my posting about crime/pickpocket aviodance guide in a thread further down here (rec.travel.latin-america). I was the one who experienced the problem with the self-appointed parking attendant. I think there are at least two kinds of parking attendants. Official ones (I think I have heard that they have som kind of cloth or id to be sure they are official) and self-appointed ones. The one I met certainly looked highly unofficial to say the least. But from there to say that he is into some organised crime and mafia is taking it a bit far (but of course I do not know that). Can anyone shed some light on the facts here? Are there official and self-appointed parking attendants, or just official ones in Rio? I think I know the answer, but would like a more qualified statement than my own here. Borge "Kurko" wrote in message news 3. In 3rd world countries there are JOBS like parking attendants. These guys have actually licence to operate as such (atleast in Rio they do). There is no MAFIA involved here, just some people trying to get their livelihood with honest way (read not robbing the tourists). |
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Suffer the Children
http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstori...ferchild.shtml
Suffer the Children By Craig D. Guillot The screaming and shouting had been attracting a crowd near the corner of Avenida Copacabana and Rua Sao Paulo. Breaking out into a slow-paced jog, I approached the corner of the building as a small child in tattered clothes ran past me. He fled off into the distance and vanished into a crowd of pedestrians. My dark curiosity continued to draw me around the corner and into the commotion. With bare, bloodied feet slamming against the broken glass on the concrete, dozens of children scattered like roaches from the abandoned building. Crying, cowering, and throwing rocks at the police, they scurried along the block as the men tried to grab hold of them. One of the street kids' only sanctuaries had been discovered by the local community, and it was time for them to leave. It looked as if someone had discovered a rats' nest and they were shaking it up to get all of the pests out. In the streets of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, that's exactly what it was - exterminators getting rid of the unwanted pests. As the crowd of spectators grew, the police began to control their tempers. A few of the older and larger kids were whacked with small clubs, while the rest were left to flee down the street towards the shanties that loomed in the mountains above us. There would be no exterminations today, but the children knew that when the sun went down, the wolves would be out to get them. As I went to sleep that night to the symphony of gunfire, I wondered how many of those children would wake up dead. More than a half-million children sleep beneath the arms of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. They run the gamut from runaways to orphans to toddlers fleeing abusive parents. With few options, the children resort to whatever it takes to survive. Sleeping in the parking lots of the Mercedes dealerships and eating out of the garbage of the five-star hotels, they wabble the streets like lost and abandoned animals. In the quest for survival, the children form small gangs and bands for protection and companionship. Sharing horror stories about narrow escapes from armed men, they tell each other new ways to make money and bandage each other's wounds with dirty napkins found in the gutter. Quite too often, they bury one of their friends in an unmarked grave. It's perfectly logical to turn to crime in such desperate situations. Stealing to eat, some children advance in their deeds, from armed robbery to murder-for-hire. If only by sheer numbers, they threaten to tear the city apart, and there are those who refuse to sit by and watch. There are an average of 1,200 children murdered every year on the streets of Rio. They are called "pivettes" (little farts), "undesirables," "trash;" they are hunted down, tortured and killed by the city's mysterious death squads. It is widely known that many business owners and police plan an active role in the squads, which pick off the children in their sleep like flies. The average price to have a "street urchin" killed: a mere $70. In Ipanema, the mutilated body of a 5-year-old boy is found wrapped up in a rug. Not far from the scene a boy walks into a hospital, bleeding from the groin. His penis had been cut off. When city workers went to unclog a drain during a recent flood, they found a young girl with a slit throat. Ask anyone about the Candelaria Massacre, and they walk away. Rio would rather you forget about that time a group of armed men fired upon 70 sleeping children outside of a church. It's a picture that wouldn't look too good on a postcard. At the young age of 11, Jao is the head of his family. He and his two younger sisters live in an abandoned chopperia which had been vacant since the owner was sent to prison for murder. I could look into Jao's eyes and see the cold, hard stare of a war veteran. It was the look of a boy who had seen far too much in his short life. The two girls do what they can during the day to scavenge food from dumpsters in the backs of hotels and restaurants, while Jao does other things that he would rather not tell me about. Tonight was a special night though, as Daniella, the older sister, had found a few half-eaten hamburgers, a stale loaf of bread, and a half-full pint of beer. As their aching bodies grow weary, under the cover of darkness Jao and his two sisters creep back to the shack. The two girls cuddle in the corner on a stolen beach blanket, as Jao peeks through a crack in the wall at oncoming pedestrians. He knows that their lives depend on his suspicions. All across the city, beneath the view of Christ, sleep the hundreds of thousands of homeless children. It is not just the poverty and loneliness that haunt children like Jao. It is that the city wants them dead. Kurko wrote in message ... Simply because in normal daily life its next to impossible to encounter all these drug lords, thieves, muggers and murderes. In Rio more annoying are beggars, shoeshiners and all kinds of sellers not to mention "samba bands". Rio is very beautiful city (Cidade Maravilhosa), quite safe too for tourists as long as you understand and obey the "rule": Don't be stupid. Kurko On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:40:02 -0500, clint wrote: After reading all the Rio posts, why with all the wonderful places to go, would anyone travel to Rio? |
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The Ghosts of Rio
http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstori...ostreets.shtml
The Ghosts of Rio By Craig D. Guillot Christ watched over me, high on his hill in the distance, as I prowled the streets of Ipanema's shopping district on a muggy September afternoon. Behind the thick glass windows of the ritzy stores lay the products destined for Rio's elite. Up and down the avenue cruised some of the newest luxury cars on the market, as the upper class pranced along in their designer clothes, gold jewelry, and cash-laced wallets. There was a sale on gold Rolexes, and Ferrari had one of its newer models in stock. Next door, a new shipment of Persian rugs had arrived. I thought for a minute that I had stepped into Beverly Hills or New York's 5th Avenue, but as I looked harder, beneath the glitter and glamour of Ipanema, I could see something entirely different. Between the stores and malls, stood nervous men armed with Uzis and AK-47s. With fingers rubbing the triggers, their bloodshot eyes wandered up and down the block. They were on the lookout for ghosts. Among the Porsches and BMWs creeped the ramshackle city buses, packed with the rest of Rio's 10 million residents. Crammed like sardines in a tin can, the desperate souls in fourth-hand clothes leered and pointed at the commerce around them. Belching clouds of exhaust, the buses cruised towards the shantytown favelas rising high into the mountains. It was a cruel, teasing form of urban planning, where day after day the poor would look down to see the world that didn't want them; nowhere on earth does such wealth and poverty lay side by side. Along the elaborately designed sidewalks and outside the jewelry stores, lay the occasional motionless body. A small child was curled up underneath a sidewalk bench, while a legless man begged on the corner. Then there was an old woman, who lay in a pile of trash on the shoulder of the road. With her head resting upon her hands, she slept like a baby as cars raced past only inches from her head. A taxi pulled up alongside of her as two women, with gold necklaces and bags of loot, stepped right over the sleeping body. Across the street, a group of small children, with dirtied faces and rags around their malnourished bodies, scurried underneath the outdoor tables of restaurants in search of crumbs. They looked just like pigeons pecking for birdseed in a park. It wasn't long before a bearded man with an automatic weapon chased them away like a pack of wild dogs. Every block or two, a body lay right across the sidewalk. I did as the cariocas, Rio's residents, did, and stepped right over them. The cariocas shopped for gold and talked on their cell phones, as the rest of the city died beneath their feet. The poor simply did not exist. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched a man emerge from what appeared to be a small drainage hole. Slowly standing into a hunchback position, he started to wobble his way onto the sidewalk. Draped in torn, filthy rags, he had a ski mask on his head; it was tilted sideways, so that only the right eye showed, but through the left hole. A large tear in the rags around his body revealed what appeared to be burnt and disfigured skin. The man crept his way in my direction, dragging his aching feet along the concrete as men with Armani suits and Rolex watches scurried around him. Mothers led their children around the trail of blood, while others trudged right on through, as if the blood were just a puddle of water. As the monster walked in front of the small store where I was standing, a man with a pistol strapped to his waist came outside and started yelling at him. All I could understand of the Portuguese was "Leave, leave... you are f*****g up the sidewalk!" The masked man slowly wandered into the street. Cars honked their horns and swerved around him. A splashing sound suddenly caught my attention. I looked back down the sidewalk: a shop owner was dumping buckets of water on the blood. As the masked figure made it to the other side of the street, he dropped down onto an open area of concrete, falling on his back. The enormous pool of blood forming from his feet made it apparent that death was coming for him. While the sun started to set, the crowds began to thin, so that the drug gangs and killers could take control of the streets. After all, Rio had to meet its annual murder count of 6,000. Taking one last look at the man, I thought that was why he had crawled out of that hole in the first place: to die in front of everyone, in the hope that someone would notice. Nowhere on earth have I seen such indifference to so much suffering. I wanted to show the man that I cared. I walked around him. Kurko wrote in message ... Simply because in normal daily life its next to impossible to encounter all these drug lords, thieves, muggers and murderes. In Rio more annoying are beggars, shoeshiners and all kinds of sellers not to mention "samba bands". Rio is very beautiful city (Cidade Maravilhosa), quite safe too for tourists as long as you understand and obey the "rule": Don't be stupid. Kurko On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:40:02 -0500, clint wrote: After reading all the Rio posts, why with all the wonderful places to go, would anyone travel to Rio? |
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Travelling to Rio
In article , P E T E R
P A N writes http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americ...carnival.reut/ Three policemen killed, ten wounded in ambush in Rio de Janeiro Monday, February 16, 2004 Posted: 10:31 AM EST (1531 GMT) RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Three policemen were killed and 10 wounded in Rio de Janeiro when gunmen ambushed the bus in which they were traveling in a new outburst of violence days before the annual Carnival, police said Monday. Good. Now that we know where you come from (in previous threads in rec.travel.latin-america you have been promoting an Argentinian travel website) we know how to respond. You are a nasty troll, as I suspected, when I pointed out the holes in your sob story. Good thing about trolls is that they can't stay hidden for too long. -- JohnM Author of Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul http://www.scroll.demon.co.uk/spaver.htm |
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Travelling to Rio
Ok little fairy.
Thank you for your misinformation, now you may crawl back to the hole you came from. NOBODY here needs your opinion anymore. We know that your enormous EGO got hurt while you were visiting Rio, but try to cope with it GROW UP ok. Kurko On 13 Mar 2004 13:32:21 -0800, P E T E R P A N wrote: According to the articles I was able to pull out of the net on a quick search, the organized crimes problems are far more serious in Brazil than any big city in the world, with ambush and shoot outs of the police, drug lords in prison ordering shut down of business, shcools, banks, stores, shops, gas stations...in Rio, including the touristy areas like Copacabana and Ipanema. In this lawless situation, my feelings are that tourists have very high probablity of being victims of violent crimes, or just caught in the cross fires between the gangs with machine guns, grenades, and police, compared to other cities. By the way, the scenaries in Rio is much poorer than many places in North America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean...Rio is full of homeless, undesirables people sleeping on the streets, watching tourists intensely for the opportunities to commit crimes! Rio also reeks of urine and feces on every street! In the scale of 0 to 10 on the fun index, Rio is not even a 3 compared to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, the Hawaii islands, the US Virgin Islands...! I will stay away from Rio, so Kurko can happily kiss the drug lords' *sses, obey their harsh rules, and enjoy that hell hole by himself! Everyone is urged to come to the US to enjoy beautiful, pristine and peaceful sceneries every season, every climate, from high mountains, to deserts, to wide open oceans, with excellent outdoor and indoor sports and recreations, with safe, clean, lively cities, with the best varieties of great foods, and the company of friendly, fun, warm, honest, civilized, law-abiding Americans! Kurko wrote in message ... Simply because in normal daily life its next to impossible to encounter all these drug lords, thieves, muggers and murderes. In Rio more annoying are beggars, shoeshiners and all kinds of sellers not to mention "samba bands". Rio is very beautiful city (Cidade Maravilhosa), quite safe too for tourists as long as you understand and obey the "rule": Don't be stupid. Kurko On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:40:02 -0500, clint wrote: After reading all the Rio posts, why with all the wonderful places to go, would anyone travel to Rio? -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ |
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Travelling to Rio
JohnM schrieb: Good. Now that we know where you come from (in previous threads in rec.travel.latin-america you have been promoting an Argentinian travel website) we know how to respond. You are a nasty troll, as I suspected, when I pointed out the holes in your sob story. Good thing about trolls is that they can't stay hidden for too long. Agora que você menciona, a coisa começa a fazer sentido. A moeda por aqui custou a cair. JL |
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Travelling to Rio
This stupid, nasty guy JohnM was not able to provide any information
or any arguments to defend his interests in Brazil, so he just conveniently accuses other poster of being a troll! If JohnM is stupid and unedcuated, perhaps he should just shut up, lest people may suspect that he is lying to protect his pimping, mugging interests in Rio! JohnM wrote in message Good. Now that we know where you come from (in previous threads in rec.travel.latin-america you have been promoting an Argentinian travel website) we know how to respond. You are a nasty troll, as I suspected, when I pointed out the holes in your sob story. Good thing about trolls is that they can't stay hidden for too long. |
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Travelling to Rio
Everyone should see clearly that this dumb jerk Kurko is acting like a
stupid, uneducated loser with his nonsense arguments and his dumb accusations! If Kurko's old wife got raped up her big, sagging *ss by a bunch of drug lords, Kurko will immediately blame his wife for the crime like any dumb loser would! Kurko is just dumb trash! Kurko wrote in message ... Ok little fairy. Thank you for your misinformation, now you may crawl back to the hole you came from. NOBODY here needs your opinion anymore. We know that your enormous EGO got hurt while you were visiting Rio, but try to cope with it GROW UP ok. Kurko |
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