www.alertnet.org 28 Feb 2003 18:27 By Andrei Khalip

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Feb 28 (Reuters) - As King Momo donned his colorful robes to kick off Rio de Janeiro's annual Carnival, troops geared up on Friday to protect the city from drug gangs in the first such operation during Carnival season.

Col. Ivan Cosme of the Eastern Military Command told reporters an unspecified number of troops from the army, navy and other units would begin on Friday to safeguard the city, where a wave of gang-related violence has claimed 10 lives.

Code-named "Operation Guanabara" after Rio's picturesque bay, it will be the first time the military is called in to police the city during the pre-Lenten Carnival -- five days of drinking and partying that has become an important symbol of the Brazilian identity.

"In principle, (the operation) should last until Ash Wednesday, but there is no fixed deadline for it to end," Cosme said. He declined to reveal any other details, saying secrecy was important "in a situation with high danger elements."

The state's Department of Security said troops and police would be placed near the famous Sambadrome, a long strip lined with viewing boxes and stands where Rio's top samba-dancing groups parade in a lavish show broadcast around the globe.

Along with loud, frolicking street processions where alcohol flows freely, the Sambadrome parades with its scantily clad beauty queens, giant floats and glittering costumes are the essence of Rio's Carnival, which lures hordes of tourists annually and is key for Rio's economy.

Hours before the fat King Momo was to receive the symbolic key to the city, police engaged in a shootout with drug gangs, shutting down a busy artery for three hours. So powerful have the drug gangs become that they are described by the media as the "parallel power" to the state.

10 DEAD SO FAR

That was just an echo of the wave of violence that staggered Rio earlier this week, sowing panic among its residents and sullying the image of the beautiful beachside city that is hoping for a record number of tourist this year.

More than 50 buses were set on fire or vandalized between Monday and Thursday and criminals set off home-made bombs and fired shots at shops that ignored their order to remain shut. Some 10 people have been killed so far in the shootouts.

Rio authorities said the gangs, which run the lucrative drugs and arms trade from slum strongholds, had ordered the violence in retaliation for tough police action against them.

But security experts said criminals may have been distracting police attention from a big shipment of drugs or weapons or flexing their muscle to demand better prison conditions for jailed kingpins.

Rio state Gov. Rosinha Matheus had asked for 3,000 troops and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday approved the request. Army units would help nearly 30,000 police mobilized by Rio authorities maintain law and order.

Rio had to call in troops twice in October last year during presidential elections, also amid fears of gang-related violence. The elections went without a hitch.

Despite some hotel cancellations mainly by Brazilians, Rio tourism authorities expect a trouble-free Carnival given all the precautions. They expect a record 388,000 visitors, including 40,000 from abroad.

City folklore has it that Rio's residents set aside their conflicts and bandits swap their guns for drums during Carnival.

www.brazzil.com

Over 40,000 members of the security forces are patrolling the streets of Rio this Carnaval to make sure that while the merrymaking goes with a bang, it is the right kind of bang. Compared with events in Rio, Salvador, and Recife the São Paulo Carnaval is a feeble affair.

John Fitzpatrick

No Dancing in the Street for Lula

The Carnaval is almost on us once again and politicians are heading back to their home areas to dance in the streets and mingle with the people. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, however, will spend his first Carnaval as President in Brasília although he has received many invitations to attend parades all across the country. This shows great devotion to duty, since, in this writer's view, any sane person would use any excuse to escape from the sterility of architect Oscar Niemeyer's monstrous blot on the Brazilian landscape.

Cheap Thrills in São Paulo

São Paulo is not a Carnaval town. Despite the fact that millions of Northeasterners live here, the Paulistano is still not really in tune with the Carnaval. There will be parades, of course, but compared with events in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife etc the São Paulo Carnaval is a feeble affair. The mayor's office will be distributing 100,000 free condoms in the city's sambadrome, which might attract a few cheap thrill seekers, but no one would dream of going to São Paulo for the Carnaval. As usual, the attention of the world will be focused on Rio de Janeiro.

Cariocaphobia I

If you ever want to irritate someone from São Paulo then start praising Rio. Within a minute your listener will start telling you how dangerous Rio is. (At least three people were killed in the rehearsals for the São Paulo Carnaval last week but don't remind him of this.) Then he will tell you how lazy the Carioca is. The Carioca only wants to hang around the beach all day and do no work. He also speaks with a loud voice in a ridiculous accent.

The fact that Rio is the symbol of Brazil worldwide is another irritating point. The Paulistano will grudgingly admit that Rio is in a beautiful location, but will be quick to tell you about the good points of his native city. Once he starts praising ghastly buildings like the MASP modern art gallery, boasts about the number of great restaurants or quotes statistics on how much of Brazil's wealth originates from São Paulo it's time to head off to one of the few places in São Paulo worth visiting—the—airport and catch a flight to Rio...

Bang Bang Brazil

Once you have arrived in Rio de Janeiro this year don't be surprised if you hear a few bombs exploding or the rattle of machine gun fire above the sound of the drums. For the second time in six months, the gangs which control the drugs trade and terrorize the population of the favela shanty towns, have decided to show the country who is boss in the "marvelous city".

Over the last few days these gangs have forced businesses across much of the city to close down, have set fire to buses and cars and threatened punishment to those who do not follow their orders. They have also set off some bombs and machine-gunned buildings. A number of people have been killed in incidents linked to this unrest. Over 40,000 members of the security forces, including several thousand troops, will be patrolling the streets to make sure that while the Carnaval goes with a bang, it is the right kind of bang.

Cariocaphobia II

To irritate the Paulistanos even more, the alleged leader of the unrest in Rio, Luiz Fernando da Costa, has been flown from Rio to a prison in São Paulo state. This gangster, known popularly as "Fernandinho Beira Mar" (Seaside Freddy), is approaching legendary proportions thanks to his activities as a cocaine dealer in Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay.

All decent law-abiding folk will be glad that he is shut up in a maximum security jail and although the Paulistas will be annoyed at having to feed and look after him, they can, at least, have the satisfaction of knowing that for a Carioca like Beira Mar, having to pass the Carnaval in São Paulo must be a fate worse than death.

Beer Cheer

The Carnaval is big business and offers a perfect opportunity for companies to get great publicity at relatively low cost. For about three days there is virtually non-stop coverage of the event on television. Newspapers and magazines publish supplements and special issues. The beer and soft drinks companies, in particular, put enormous efforts into selling their products and publicizing their brand names. They pay out large sums to sponsor samba schools and Carnaval parades. Their brands and logos are everywhere.

Brahma beer hires a special spectator box at the Rio Carnaval and packs it with "celebrities". All the guests obligingly don tee shirts bearing the company's name and the media obligingly takes pictures in the belief that a group of grinning faces is somehow newsworthy. I recall once seeing four pages of photographs of this particular company's party in a magazine. Every photo had the company name plastered across the front of the subject. The advertising director must have been the happiest man in Brazil to gain so much publicity at so little cost.

Bom Carnaval!

Wherever you are bom carnaval, especialmente para os brasileiros no exterior.

John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicações—  www.celt.com.br, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at jf@celt.com.br 

© John Fitzpatrick 2003

You can also read John Fitzpatrick's articles in Infobrazil, at www.infobrazil.com 

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.28.03, 10:22 AM ET

NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs said it raised its allocation of Brazilian bonds in its model portfolio to overweight from underweight, thanks to the new government's push for austere fiscal policies and structural reforms. Goldman also noted that it moved South African bonds to 1.0 percent overweight from market weight, as debt ratios have improved "substantially" due to better fiscal performance. It said it cut Colombian bonds to market weight from a 1.5 percent overweight and moved Peru to market weight from 0.5 percent underweight. In addition, it said it lowered Korean bonds to 2.0 percent underweight from market weight. The investment bank said in a report received by Reuters on Friday that it moved Brazil to 1.0 percent overweight from 1.0 percent underweight, saying it sees positive prospects for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's bid to give the central bank more autonomy and to change the bankruptcy and social security laws. It said the markets will be looking for progress from Lula on reaching a consensus on the overhauls of the tax and social security systems, which analysts say are critical if Brazil hopes to bolster its financial health. "We continue to like the economic policy approach of the (Workers Party) administration, which consists of pursuing tight fiscal and monetary policies and seeking the approval of a number of structural reforms," Goldman said. (Reporting by Susan Schneider, editing by Dave Zimmerman; Reuters Messaging: susan.schneider.reuters.com@reuters.net, tel: +1 646 223 6319)

www.washingtonpost.com By Jon Jeter Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 28, 2003; Page A14

Police took positions this week during an operation in a Rio slum where gangs burned buses and tossed bombs at cars and buildings. (Wilton Junior -- AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 27 -- Flavia Carvalho recalls unlocking the door to her computer software store here Tuesday when she noticed how utterly alone she was on a commercial block that is usually bustling by 10 a.m. Everything was closed: the shoe boutique, the art gallery, the colossal supermarket on the corner.

Then, with a tap on the shoulder, a young man appeared, seemingly from nowhere, with a message all the more chilling for its casual delivery: Shut down your shop for the day, or else.

"I thought: Oh, no, not again," Carvalho said. "Another day without business. But what could I do? He told me that anyone who opened would be shot or burned."

As this colorful coastal city prepares for thousands of international visitors and the anything-goes, five-day binge known as Carnaval that begins Friday, the government is battling an eruption of random bombings, shootings and vandalism that has disrupted vast swaths of Rio.

At the center of the violence is the feared criminal gang, Red Command, and its leader, a convicted arms dealer and drug kingpin known as "Seaside Freddy." The Brazilian government said it moved the gang leader out of Rio de Janeiro for 30 days on suspicion he was behind the violence. Police officials in Rio told reporters they suspected the gang leader was orchestrating the crime spree via a cell phone from jail.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered the deployment of 3,000 army troops to the city today to supplement 30,000 state and local police officers who are often outgunned by the Red Command and its well-armed, gun-running, and drug-trafficking rivals.

The president took that step, said Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos, "because organized crime is seriously threatening public safety.

"In addition, we have transferred the gang leader, Luiz Fernando da Costa, also known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar [Seaside Freddy in Portuguese] to a maximum security prison" in Sao Paulo state, south of here. News reports said the prison is able to jam cell phone calls. Prison officials assigned round the clock security for da Costa and 20 other jailed gang members.

Some law-enforcement officials here say that da Costa ordered the attacks in retaliation for the kidnapping of a cousin. But others say that a recent police crackdown in the sprawling hillside shantytowns controlled by gang members was the reason for the violence.

Rio de Janeiro has experienced violence before, but marauding attacks have rarely spread so indiscriminately outside the borders of the shantytowns -- known as favelas -- and into chic neighborhoods like Ipanema where surfers, bohemian artists and well-to-do vacationers rub elbows and shop.

Nearly 30,000 businesses have been forced to shut down since Monday. More than a dozen people have been injured and more than 30 buses have been set afire. Gang members tossed homemade bombs at cars and buildings, and police have made more than 36 arrests. A police raid Wednesday on a suspected Red Command weapons cache resulted in the shooting deaths of two suspected gang members.

Nearly 400,000 tourists began pouring into Rio this week for Carnaval, mostly oblivious to the violence. The U.S. Embassy has not issued travel alerts for the area, and tourism officials and travel agents say that the mayhem has not resulted in notable cancellations.

"I had no idea," said Todd Fredrikkson, 33, a liquor wholesaler from Sweden who arrived for Carnaval this week. "I've been wanting to come to Carnaval my whole life, so nothing short of a lost limb is going to make me miss this."

But police officers, government officials and citizens of this sprawling city of opulent wealth and crushing poverty are acutely aware of the crime spree and fear that it will harden the city's reputation as home to guns, gangs, drugs and violence.

Government officials said that they were focusing their patrols on entry points to the city's 600 favelas during the Carnaval pageantry, which culminates with all-night parades, samba extravaganzas and balls on Ash Wednesday.

"The gangs have become a second force," said Pablo Neto, a street vendor who lives in a favela. "They attack when they feel someone -- even the police -- is threatening their authority."

In September, police say, da Costa and several other members of the Red Command seized control of a wing of the Bangu maximum security prison and tortured members from a rival gang before executing them and hanging a red flag from the prison watchtower to signal victory before surrendering.

At that time, gang members also used the threat of violence to force thousands of shop owners across Rio to close their doors. Police say that da Costa ordered the campaign to protest prison conditions.

Researcher Phyllis Huber contributed to this report.

www.falkland-malvinas.com

With the support of the Armed Forces, Brazilian Police have launched a huge security operation to protect the carnival in Rio de Janeiro which has been threatened by spiralling violence between drugs gangs.

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil Up to 28,000 policemen will be in the streets to protect Carnival celebrations that begin this Friday and are also an important income source for the country. Drug gangs have burned and machine gunned buses, attacked police stations and set off small bombs in the beachfront with hotels packed with tourists.

"They've chosen the worst moment," said Jose Eduardo Guinle, Director of Rio’s Tourism Agency, insisting that Carnival will be celebrated since this “is our big chance to recover the image of the city abroad."

Rio authorities blame the city's largest drug gang, the Red Command, for the current surge in violence, saying the orders were given by its leader, Fernandinho Beira-Mar - known as Seaside Freddy - who is currently in jail. The gang is apparently reacting to tough police action threatening their control of many shanty towns. But the latest violence has hit high income areas of the city usually immune from gang-related incidents and in the middle of the city’s main celebration when traditionally enemies put down their weapons.

Some crime experts believe the gangs might also be trying to distract police from big drug or arms shipments, or showing their strength in order to demand better conditions for some of their bosses in prison. In a recent raid the police seized mortars and automatic weapons.

"Criminals have acquired social control through the dissemination of fear," said Walter Maierovitch, head of Brazilian Institute for Crime Research.

However, the president Lula da Silva administration decision to send the Army as a back up force to fight drug related crime in Rio do Janerio is controversial. Previous experiences even when the country was under military rule did not prove effective. Not so many years ago a hard-line no-nonsense general was named head of the Police force in Rio with the purpose of putting an end to the gang warfare and drugs trade. In a daring demonstration of power the gangs had the general’s luggage stolen from him when he arrived in Rio airport.

Besides, a recent report aired in the Brazilian Congress indicates that the majority of the gang’s heavy equipment and most deadly weapons belonged to the Brazilian military. They were either stolen or smuggled out of the barracks or sold by the same soldiers to the gangsters.