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Brazil defends its tourism policies

A Brazilian immigration officer photographs a visiting US tourist at Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Friday. Brazil began fingerprinting and photographing US visitors Thursday on orders of a judge who compared planned US security controls on travelers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi horrors. PHOTO: REUTERS

Brazil said Friday it would not end court-ordered photographing and fingerprinting of US visitors, a tit-for-tat response to a similar US measure, despite grumbling over the US action.

"I consider the act itself absolutely brutal, an attack on human rights, a violation of human dignity, xenophobic and as bad as the worst horrors sponsored by the Nazis," Judge Julier Sebastiao wrote of the US measures, in his decision ordering Brazilian authorities to fingerprint and photograph all US visitors.

Brazil's policy is to treat foreign visitors as their countries treat Brazilians.

Beginning Jan. 5, US immigration officials at all international airports will vet visitors' passports and visas and pose the usual questions -- before taking their photographs and inkless digital fingerprints.

Visitors from 27 countries whose citizens may enter the US without a visa are exempt from this "biometric identification." The list of 27 is made up mostly of European countries and does not include Brazil.

A Brazilian foreign ministry spokesman told reporters Friday that the government could appeal the court order, but "never considered it."

Brazilian police photographed and fingerprinted US citizens arriving at Sao Paulo international airport. Police in Rio de Janeiro told the Brazilian news agency, Agencia Brasil, that they had not received official instructions, but would begin the procedure today.

Biometric identification was taken from about 230 US citizens, many of whom made clear displeasure, according to police.

The US said Friday that it was Brazil's right to impose such requirements, but deputy US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington, "Our consulates general in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are monitoring developments on this issue closely."

Ereli said the US had no plans to complain or even discuss the regulations with Brazilian authorities as "countries have the sovereign right to determine the entry requirements for foreign nationals who apply for admission to their individual country."

"This is their sovereign right to do if they want to do it," he told reporters.

Rio's mayor, Cesar Maia, protested the Brazilian counter-measures, saying, "It makes us an international laughing stock ... when Rio has just gotten some international visibility hosting large sporting and tourist events."

"Brazil wants to be treated on an equal footing on every level and 2004 might give standing to new friction," National University of Brazil political science professor David Fleischer reporters.
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