Carnival lights up Rio despite crime wave, yellow fever scare

Carnivalfestivities took over Rio de Janeiro yesterday as revellers danced anddrank at block parties, despite an extended crime wave in the city and aspike in yellow fever cases throughout Brazil.Over 6mn people,including 1.5mn visitors, are expected to take to the streets of Rio forthe annual celebrations, which pit the city’s 13 best samba schoolsagainst one another in ornate parades that can cost over $2mn a piece.Tolaunch the ‘world’s biggest party’ on Friday, officials handed aglittering key to the city to King Momo, a figurehead who presides overthe partying and who, according to legend, was expelled from MountOlympus before moving to Rio, the so-called “wonderful city.”But the celebrations this year come amid escalating violence.Gains made after police began a ‘pacification’ programme in 2008, pushing drug gangs out of favelas, have been unravelling.An economic crisis dried up funding, and critics say the government did not make good on promised social advances for the slums.Reportsof shootings averaged 22 per day in January 2018, up from 16 last year,said Fogo Cruzado, a group which tracks armed violence in Rio.Inrecent days, a three-year-old girl was killed in an attempted robberyand a thirteen-year-old boy died after being caught in crossfire betweenpolice and traffickers as he made his way home after a soccer game.“Welive with our hearts torn apart by so much violence,” Rio’s mayorMarcelo Crivella said on Friday at an event inaugurating thefestivities.“Carnival at this moment is about resurgence, about hope,” he added.Riowill beef up its police force to around 17,000 for the bacchanaliaafter the federal government denied a request for troops to help enforcesecurity.Brazil is also battling a spike in yellow fever, a viraldisease transmitted by mosquitoes in tropical regions, with 98 deathsand 353 cases now confirmed since July, 2017.The outbreak of thedisease, which is still a major killer in Africa but had been largelybrought under control in the Americas, has hit the states of Sao Pauloand Minas Gerais hardest.Rio’s state Health Secretary Luiz AntonioTeixeira Junior has recommended that unvaccinated tourists avoid forestsand waterfalls, as a massive vaccination campaign was launched in Rioand Sao Paulo.Even so, festival attendees are expected to drop some3.5bn reais ($1.1bn) on the city, with some paying over $1,000 fortickets to watch the top samba schools shimmy down the 700m runway atthe sambadrome stadium.Elsewhere in the city, locals and touristsdecked out in glitter and tutus will sip beer and dance to powerfuldrums at over 400 more informal block parties.Major carnival paradesand other festivities will also take place in other cities, includingSao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest metropolis, and Salvador, a city in thenortheast.