Rio Told to Stop Anti-U.S. Airport Checks

January 13, 2004

Rio Told to Stop Anti-U.S. Airport Checks
Washington Times, D.C.
    
    RIO DE JANEIRO — A federal judge ordered a halt to
fingerprinting all U.S. visitors to Rio de Janeiro, a
requirement that was imposed in response to antiterror
steps in the United States, a court official said
yesterday. 
    Later yesterday, the government issued an
executive order, saying the requirement would remain
in place for 30 days while an interministerial group
studied the issue. 
    It was not immediately clear which measure took
precedence. Even government lawyers had differing
opinions over whether the judge's order or the
government decree took precedence. 
    The measures initially delayed U.S. travelers in
airports for up to nine hours since Jan. 1. 
    A federal judge ordered the measures after the
United States this month began fingerprinting
travelers arriving from a number of countries,
including Brazil. 
    Judge Catao Alves of the First Regional Federal
Court issued an injunction Friday night after the city
of Rio de Janeiro appealed the initial ruling, Alcino
Coelho, an aide, said by telephone from the capital,
Brasilia. 
    The injunction only applies to Rio de Janeiro —
Brazil's No. 1 tourist destination — because it was
the city that filed the appeal. 
    U.S. tourists arriving in the city continued to be
fingerprinted and photographed yesterday morning. 
    In the northeastern city of Recife, federal police
began using digital equipment yesterday rather than
ink pads to process Americans. There are no direct
flights from the United States to Recife, which
receives mainly European tourists at its international
airport. 
    U.S. officials have called the Brazilian response
discriminatory because it singles out Americans.
Brazilian officials have cited the diplomatic
principal of reciprocity in justifying the action. 
    In the order last month, Judge Julier da Silva
compared the U.S. measures to the "worst horrors
perpetrated by the Nazis" and ordered police to start
taking American visitors' fingerprints and
photographs. 
    Judge Alves, siding with Rio de Janeiro in a
lawsuit, said the practice might hurt Brazil's economy
by cutting into tourism. "The courts cannot endorse
political retaliation," Judge Alves wrote in his
decision, "because it could hurt our country's foreign
relations." 
    At Rio's international airport and at the seaport,
U.S. tourists again were waiting yesterday in the long
lines that have become common since the system went
into effect on Jan. 1 in response to a similar U.S.
system. 
    The Rio mayor's office said the measure had led to
cancellations of group tours and damaged the city's
economy. 
    Carnival, a major tourist draw in Rio, will be
held Feb. 21-24. 
    The practice led U.S. Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell to complain last week about delays as long as
nine hours for arriving tourists. Brazilian Foreign
Minister Celso Amorim responded by asking the United
States to exempt Brazilians from being fingerprinted
and photographed, as it does for visitors from 27
countries. 
    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
planned to discuss the issue with President Bush in a
meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, last night. 
    The new ruling was a partial victory for Rio de
Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia, who went to court against
the practice and said long delays at airports will
spook U.S. tourists who spend $340 million a year in
the city. The city attracted 38 percent of the 3.7
million foreign tourists that visited Brazil in 2002. 
    "The decision should convince the Brazilian
government not to do anything else retaliatory that
makes our country look bad," Mr. Maia replied by
e-mail to questions from Bloomberg News. 
    The ruling only applies to Rio de Janeiro, and the
judge left it to the central government to decide
whether to scrap the practice elsewhere in Brazil, Mr.
Coelho, the court spokesman, said. 


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