Brazil

Brazil: Tourists Targets of Armed Robberies at Sao Paulo Airport

Date: December 27th, 2005 |

Crime targeting travelers has increased at and around Sao Paulo�s Guarulhos International Airport. In recent months a traveler was robbed at gunpoint inside the terminal in front of a check-in counter; another was assaulted in a bathroom; others were victims of carjackings on the roads near the airport. Part of the problem may be that [read more]

Brazil

Date: June 7th, 2005 |

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The Rio de Janeiro state legislature approved a bill to build six-foot walls along some main roads to protect motorists from stray bullets after a gun battle between police and drug traffickers shut down the Red Line expressway. The shoot-out lasted several hours and many drivers abandoned their cars or reversed direction to escape. This [read more]

Brazil

Date: November 22nd, 2004 |

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Crime against tourists in Rio de Janeiro is not news, but a four-day spree Nov. 11-14 when 24 tourists were mugged was high even for Rio�s standards. Victims were from Argentina, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. Authorities were left searching for what to do while police came under heavy criticism for failing to reduce such [read more]

Brazil

Date: April 7th, 2004 |

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Nightclubs in Rio de Janeiro are being plagued by a re-emergence of �pitboy� gangs that originally surfaced in the late 1990s. Pitboys are named after aggressive pitbull dogs and they intimidate and attack patrons of nightclubs and bars in the popular Copacabana-Ipanema-Leblon areas. They are reportedly martial arts aficionados, from the middle class, with shaved [read more]

Brazil

Date: January 7th, 2004 |

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In response to the new U.S. policy to fingerprint and photograph arriving passengers from more than 150 countries, Brazil is doing the same to Americans. Immigration delays in Brazil have been long, more than nine hours on a recent arrival, according to the U.S. Embassy. Because the Brazilian policy is retaliation for the U.S. regulation, [read more]

Brazil: Vampire Bats Cause Rabies Outbreak

Date: November 13th, 2005 |

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A wave of attacks by vampire bats in the northern state of Maranhao in the Amazon region has killed 23 people in the last two months and health authorities have treated 1,300 people for rabies. Opinions vary on why the attacks are occurring. Some experts blame deforestation that drives bats out of their natural habitat; [read more]

Brazil

Date: December 14th, 2004 |

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An additional 2,500 police officers have been posted in Rio de Janeiro to combat escalating crime against visitors. More than 1,200 attacks against tourists have been reported this year around the Copacabana district alone, and authorities are determined to get the situation under control. Police armed with rifles have set up checkpoints at various places [read more]

Brazil

Date: April 27th, 2004 |

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A work slowdown by federal police since March has benefited Americans flying into Rio de Janeiro. Federal police handle immigration services at Brazil�s international airports and their strike has reduced staff enough in Rio that it is impossible to photograph and fingerprint all arriving Americans. Staff shortages combined with broken digital fingerprinting equipment have meant [read more]

Brazil

Date: February 17th, 2004 |

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Fingerprinting and photographing of arriving U.S. citizens will continue indefinitely under new rules that make the policy permanent. The interminable delays, however, may be over, as the rules call for the immediate installment of electronic fingerprinting machines and web cameras to speed up the process. Americans will no longer be called out of immigration lines [read more]

Brazil

Date: May 13th, 2003 |

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Rio de Janeiro is in the midst of a violent crime wave that is “out of control,” according to police officials. Drug gangs that traditionally have been most active in the slums on the edge of the city have attacked police units, shopping malls, supermarkets, tourist hotels and the main highways linking the airport and [read more]