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Pastimes : Rarely is the question asked: "is our children learning" -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Sladek who wrote (1793)	1/11/2004 8:38:01 AM
From: John Sladek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2171

10Jan04-Larry Rohter-Security spat tears at Brazil's ties with U.S. Larry Rohter/NYT NYT Saturday, January 10, 2004 RIO DE JANEIRO With both Brazil and the United States holding fast to their insistence on photographing and fingerprinting visitors from the other country, what began as a minor spat last week is now threatening to sour relations between the two most populous countries in the Western Hemisphere. The dispute is an outgrowth of the new U.S.-Visit program, which applies to all foreigners entering the United States except certain categories of people from 27 countries. Comparing the American action to "the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," an offended judge in a remote interior state ordered that all Americans arriving in Brazil be subjected to the same treatment. Judging by radio call-in programs and newspaper columns and letters to the editor, the measure has proved popular here, with Brazilians praising their government for standing up to Washington. But that sentiment makes it politically costly for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a left-leaning former labor leader who took office last year, to cede to Washington's insistence that the program be curtailed. "The barriers to American visitors erected at ports and airports have served thus far to inflate the national ego," O Globo, the principal daily here, cautioned in an editorial on Friday. "But with the complaints of Secretary Colin Powell and the tension in contacts between the Foreign Ministry and Washington, this could take on the dimensions of an undesired diplomatic crisis." Initially, the United States appeared indifferent to the Brazilian action. But on Wednesday, Washington's tone hardened, with a State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, noting that the American procedure takes "just seconds," compared with delays of up to nine hours for some Americans arriving here, and suggesting that the Brazilian policy was purposely discriminatory. "It's not being applied to all people the way our system is," Boucher said of the Brazilian measures. "We regret the way in which the new procedures have suddenly been put into place that single out U.S. citizens for exceptional treatment." Brazilian diplomats and government officials are exempted from the American inspection program. In contrast, embassy staff members said, U.S. diplomats in Brazil have been photographed and fingerprinted even after presenting their diplomatic passports, and even a visiting U.S. senator, Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, was forced to comply with the procedure. Boucher's complaints were followed by a telephone call by Powell to his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim. Officials of both governments said the focus of the conversation was next week's meeting of Western Hemisphere heads of state in Mexico. But they added that the fingerprinting spat was also discussed and is likely to be addressed again when President George W. Bush and da Silva meet next week. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said it was seeking to "assure proper treatment" for its citizens arriving in the United States and invoked the principle of reciprocity, which it said was a "basic element of international relations." On Thursday, Amorim told reporters that Brazil had grounds to complain of discrimination because "27 countries are exempt from this measure" and Brazil deserves to be among them. The United States has identified the border region where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay come together as a haven for Islamic terrorists. There is also a flourishing traffic in counterfeit and contraband passports; on Wednesday, for instance, a Brazilian police officer about to board a plane in São Paulo was arrested with 36 blank Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Mexican passports. Brazilian officials, however, have contested American warnings about that situation and maintain that their country is not facing any threat of terrorism, which critics here said would seem to obviate any need to build files on American tourists. But Federal Police officials say fingerprinting is necessary because American visitors could be involved in the prostitution of children or wildlife smuggling. The new Brazilian policy has already begun to affect tourism from the United States. According to the tourist association in Rio - the primary destination of the more than 600,000 American tourists who visit Brazil each year - an American corporation canceled an excursion for 240 of its employees. Cruise ship and air charter lines are thinking of doing the same. The mayor of Rio, Cesar Maia, this week appealed the original court ruling, calling the new policy "infantile." But his request was turned down by a judge here, who said she lacked the legal authority to revoke the decision of a judge in another state. As of Friday, the federal government, which does have the power to challenge the policy for a limited time, had not yet filed suit asking that the judge's ruling be overturned. In remarks to Brazilian reporters on Thursday, Amorim said that such a step should properly occur "within an assemblage of concepts that will permit better treatment for Brazilians in the United States." The New York Times iht.com