US traveller fined USD17,000 for ‘obscene gesture’

A traveller from the United States has become the second American to be fined heavily in Brazil for “disrespecting police”. The BBC news website today reports that Alan Skolnick was fined some USD17,200 for “raising his middle finger” while being photographed at the resort of Foz do Iguacu. The incident comes just weeks after an American Airlines pilot was fined USD12,000 in Sao Paolo for making the same gesture. As reported by News From Abroad, Brazil introduced the system of photographing and fingerprinting visitors in response to a similar regime recently implemented in the United States. The BBC reports that the tourist was charged with showing contempt to authorities, and was being kept in his hotel room, with a police guard outside, until the fine was paid. Brazilian television reportedly showed the man telling journalists: “I am an American citizen. I am not a monkey.” The Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva has reportedly asked US president George Bush to dispense with the visa requirement for Brazilians visiting the US; Brazil introduced its checks because its law required that all such rules in foreign countries are reciprocated.