- SAO PAULO, Brazil
(Reuters) - Police at Sao Paulo's airport were deluged with calls of congratulations
on Thursday for arresting an American Airlines pilot who made an obscene
gesture while being photographed by immigration officials as part of a
policy that has soured U.S.-Brazilian relations.
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- The pilot, Dale Robin Hersh, 52, who was arrested for
raising his middle figure in a photograph that was splashed across Brazilian
newspapers, was fined nearly $13,000 before being allowed to leave the
country, officials said.
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- The American pilot's defiant gesture brought renewed
focus to a new Brazilian policy of fingerprinting and photographing all
U.S. visitors in retaliation for a similar measure introduced by the United
States for many foreigners.
-
- Many Brazilians are annoyed by what they perceive as
Washington's arrogance when dealing with Latin America and welcomed Hersh's
arrest as well as the knowledge that the new airport controls have irked
the United States.
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- A Reuters photographer at Sao Paulo airport said police
had received almost nonstop phone calls of congratulations for arresting
Hersh and forcing him to surrender his passport.
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- In Brazil's capital Brasilia, vandals had spray-painted
the words, "Fingerprint the Yankees" on the side of a memorial
to former president Juscelino Kubitschek.
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- Veronique Genevieve Claude, an official at the court
where Hersh's case was heard, said the pilot had paid a $12,775 fine and
was free to leave the country.
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- U.S. passport holders have been subjected to long lines
at Brazilian ports of entry since the new controls were implemented, prompting
Secretary of State Colin Powell to complain that Americans were being
discriminated against.
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- FINGERPRINT CHECKS
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- At a regional summit in Mexico this week, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appealed to President Bush to suspend visa requirements
so the two countries could drop the fingerprint checks.
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- Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim echoed Lula's
visa appeal on local Globo television on Thursday, and said he could only
imagine what would happen if a Brazilian behaved the same way as Hersh
at U.S. immigration or elsewhere.
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- "I think people should behave in a civilized manner,"
he said.
-
- In a bid to ease the tension for American travelers ahead
of its famous Carnival in February, Rio de Janeiro's tourism body laid
on Samba dancers for arriving U.S. tourists at the airport and handed them
roses and T-shirts bearing the message "Rio loves you."
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- Airports in Rio and Sao Paulo also began using an electronic
fingerprinting and photographing system to speed up the processing of U.S.
citizens, which began on Jan. 1.
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- "The process was quick and easy," said actor
Kevin Boguel on clearing immigration at Rio's Tom Jobim airport. "I
only feel a bit embarrassed because we North Americans are getting presents
and the other tourists are not."
-
- American housewife Marilyn Ross also had no complaints
after going through the immigration procedure at Rio airport. "I think
it's normal," she said. "If the United States wants to fingerprint
then Brazil also has the right to do so." (Additional reporting Rodrigo
Gaier in Rio de Janeiro, Jon Herskovitz in Dallas, and Andrew Hay in Brasilia)
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