Thanks...I am a girl(GRIN).

Just gotta have balls and ovaries for the travel boards...SMILE.

Happy Travels,
Oaktown Traveler

While the current situation is unfortunate, one good outcome may be for more Americans to gain a far better understanding of the impact of certain policies the damage that is caused by them. Ultimately, the way to a safer world is to have all peace-seeking nations working together with common purpose and resolve.

A federal judge ordered a halt to the fingerprinting all U.S. visitors to Rio de Janeiro, a requirement that was imposed in response to similar anti-terror steps in the United States, a court official said Monday.

The measures nationwide have delayed U.S. travelers in airports for up to nine hours since Jan. 1. A federal judge in the state of Mato Grosso ordered them 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.

The injunction only applies to Rio de Janeiro because it was the city that filed the appeal.

However, U.S. tourists arriving to the city continued to be fingerprinted and photographed Monday morning because officials had not received official word of the judge's decision, federal police said.

The saga continues....
Americans flying into Rio on Tuesday were greeted with roses and T-shirts, the city's way of courting travelers unhappy about being fingerprinted and photographed in Brazil's tit-for-tat response to new US immigration rules.
The goodwill offensive features smiling young women working for a city that relies on tourists for much of its revenue and has a reputation for an easygoing beach scene and exotic nightlife rather than customs officials wielding ink pads.
Americans arriving on flights from NY and Miami received red roses and "Rio love You" t-shirts after standing in long,slow-moving lines to get fingerprinted.
City officials have tried and so far failed to suspend the measure for Rio. The Brazilian government said it would stay in place at least for 30 days while the rules are being reviewed.
The giveaways will initially be distributed on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Rio authorities may extend the act while fingerprinting continues.

Oaktown Traveler, u r completely right. I hope u come to rio in ur big SA trip...
News: today Sao Paulo and Rio's airports will use some kind of electronic imaging system to fingerprint americans, no more ink i think...

Look straight in the camera, smile, and just relax!
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americ...eut/index.html
Hope this guy gets off the hook!

I hope the pilot gets fired. Somebody that immature shouldn't be flying a plane. Giving the finger to authorities is such an adolescent gesture. (He's over 50!) Do I want somebody like him in charge of a plane? No way.
Not to mention that he's exacerbated an already tense situation. There's probably less of a chance now that the fingerprinting requirement will be lifted. Way to go -- not.

The offender AA pilot Dale Robbin Hersh, 53, was fined by a federal judge (approx. US$ 10,000 to be given to charity). He was allways well-treated by Brazilian officials. I hope this episode taught him (and his supporting crew) how to behave properly. Many brazilians are asking themselves if a foreigner giving the finger to USA authorities would be treated so lightly.

Have y'all seen the photo on TV today showing the American Airlines pilot using "an obscene" gesture in his photo that resulted in yesterday's report he was arrested, and today heard fined $13,000.

Listen, I think this fingerprinting thing is absolutely ridiculous and juvenile. I am British, but now am a naturalized US citizen, and I am outraged. I wouldn't mind, but why are only those carrying US passports fingerprinted and photographed when entering Brazil??? When I travel to Rio in July I will be taking my mother, who holds a British passport. I will be fingerprinted and photographed, but she will not. This is very unfair.

I understand that Brazilians don't like being fingerprinted when they come to the US, but if Brazil tightened its security this law would not be applied to its citizens. Brazil still uses the old passports that can't be scanned by computer, and they are very easy to forge. If Brazil wants to join the list of countries that the US doesn't impose fingerprinting on, then it needs to procede into the 21st century and get with the program.

This is not a diatribe against the Brazilian people, only its antiquated national security system.

Cheers, John G.

John, although you probably make a valid point about the lack of security of Brazilian passports, the fingerprinting requirement in the United States are for people who require visas to enter. It's because Brazilians need a visa (even tourist) to enter the US that they require to be fingerprinted and photographed on entry. Citizens from Visa-waiver countries are not required to go through this process.
I initially welcomed the new security measures. On second thought however it does all seem a little arbitrary, considering that quite a few muslim extremists hold UK passports (Shoe bomber as an example) and therefore would circumvent the added security.

At the Americas conference on Jan 13 (before the AA pilot obscene gesture episode), Brazilian President da Silva asked US President Bush to suspend the fingerprinting requirements for Brazil.
According to a NYT article on Jan 14:
On the face of it, Mr. da Silva's efforts to press the US to exempt Brazil from the registration program seem doomed, even if Mr. Bush were to show sympathy. Aside from establishing a precedent that other nations would presumably ask for, too, Brazil meets almost none of the standards set by the State Department for inclusion in the group of 27 exempted countries.
For a nation to qualily, the refusal rate on requests for nonimmigrant visas to the US must be below 3 percent; Brazil's rate is "up in the double digits, nowhere in that ballpark at all,"an American consular official said Tuesday. In addition, Brazil does not issue passports that can be scanned by machine, another American requirement.
The American regulations also require nations to "demonstrate that adequate safeguards against fraudulent use of their passports are in place." Skilled forgers here produce both Brazilian and American documents, and American officials said Brazil was second only to Mexico in so-called expedited removals because of false documentation or misrepresentation at US ports of entrys. ( from NYT Jan 14, 2004, p. A9, "Brazil Seeks to Bypass Fingerprinting" by Larry Rohter)

Also, I read on the O Globo site today that Colin Powell is expected to visit Brazil about other matters next month. Obviously, this will be discussed. But, from what I was able to translate, the Brazilian authorities will expect a mutually advantageous decision. They also said that they have 11 digital machines at Rio and SP airports, and the lines should be no more than 30 minutes. However, no one knows about time frame during heavy Carnival peak travel dates.

Simply outrageous.

First, a Brazilian federal judge calls Americans "nazis" for implementing safeguards against terrorism, and requires Americans - and only Americans - to be subject to delays of many hours to be fingerprinted as some kind of misguided retaliation for an imagined slight.

Then, when an American pilot subtly protests this insulting and draconian policy (if anyone saw the photo of the pilot, it's clear that his gesture was ambiguous and whimsical, not obscene) he is harshly persecuted with a massive fine relative to whatever offence was perceived.

Clearly, the Brazilian authorities are out of control. This anti-American bigotry has simply gotten out of hand.

Americans are not Nazis. It is simply wrong to single Americans out for this kind of persecution and abuse.

It is clear that Americans are not welcome in Brazil. We have received that message loud and clear.

Outrageous. I could use this word to express what any latin tourist feel when he tries to visit USA.
JaquesQ, where did u read about a brazilian judge saying americans r nazis???
I don't know if u have in mind that we fingerprint only americans, because we r fingerprinted by u, and ONLY BY U.
I still feel surprised when any american say we r being hostile. U r not feeling 10% of what we do when we go there.
That was not obscene? Oh, come on, gimme a break... I imagine how it would be if it were a brazilian in an american airport...
Americans r always welcome here, who comes, feel it.
Thank godness i have spanish nationality and there is no need for me to be fingerprinted there but for my girlfriend it is necessary.
Terrorists in Brazil? that must be a joke...

JauquesQ:

Come on...Americans ARE NOT being persecuted nor abused.

Please, out of respect for many who are being, have been and will be persecuted and absused, do not spout these false charges.

Furthermore: PROVE IT!

Anti-American Bigotry? For sure you are kidding? America puts the "B" in bigotry...check our proven history on this...sorry, check your newspaper and current practices going on today in Anytown, USA.

Having said that. I love where I live warts and all...I just can not take all of what America does on a daily basis on my shoulders before I travel and enjoy this life that God gives me.

No one is forbidding Americans to travel to Brazil.

Not welcome just does not fly. If we Americans were not welcome as you alledge more than just you would know it.

Sorry, I and many others simply did not get that "loud and clear" memo about that.

If you talk to any ONE of the thousands of Americans who are anxiously awaiting their time to travel there you would find no support for your view.

If you are really this angry about the situation then write to your elected officials and theirs.

Happy Travels,
Oaktown Traveler

I see this is an old thread but half of my family just flew back from MC through the states and they were fingerprinting everyone who stayed overnight in the US, Canadians also. There were major delays and their local flight was missed. We will avoid amy flights that stop in the US now direct flights are just so much nicer. Don't think it will hurt the US just wanting a less stressful travel experience as I get older.

I just returned yesterday from an amazing trip to Rio de Janiero. (thank you domdiego for the earlier advice) The fingerprinting was done electronically (only each index finger) and the photo was taken digitally. It only took about three extra minutes from the regular process. The officials conducting the procedure were very efficient and friendly. Once I was in the city, I did not hear a single reference to the whole fingerprinting issue. Vince