An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth3/13/2023 ![]() "We're being treated like criminals," complained vacationer Scott Hall from Boston. There are no digital cameras, so tourists arriving in Rio are being photographed with Polaroid cameras, at least for now. "Playing the piano" is still a manual task here: an official opens an ink pad and uniformly rubs ink onto all ten fingers. That's because Brazil's border officials are not equipped with the high-tech digital scanning devices used in the United States. Upon their arrival, US citizens are now taken to a separate room, where they can wait up to eight hours to be processed - as occurred in Rio last Monday. The big brother from the north is considered too strong. Nevertheless, hardly any Latin American governments have dared to protest the new policy. After all, most Europeans are not subjected to this procedure. Recently, the US began a new policy of photographing and fingerprinting anyone entering the country who requires a visa. Filing a complaint with a US consulate is useless, and is generally greeted with the laconic statement that this is the way things are these days, ever since September 11, 2001. After seven or eight hours, they are sent back home on the next outbound flight. It's important not to raise any suspicions, because those who do are locked into a windowless room, and are sometimes even forced to undress or are chained to a chair. They keep their cool when a border official who happens to be having a bad day asks them for proof of financial resources and lodgings, and they simply tolerate his gruffly inspecting their luggage. Latinos sweat and wait patiently at the airports of Miami and New York, while Germans, British, French and other citizens of the first world walk past them, smiling in sympathy. This is because anyone from south of the Rio Grande is automatically suspected of intending to illegally remain in the promised land. Before travelling to the United States, Argentine, Brazilian and Colombian tourists must first disclose their family situations and finances. The same holds true for a harmless trip to Disneyland.
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