Carolina Gonçalves      Reporter Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – Rio city authorities face the daunting problem of trying to control carnival participants (“foliões”) without dampening the event’s trademark joy and enthusiasm. According to the subsecretary for Public Order, Marcelo Maywald, the city is more organized in its efforts to organize carnival with each passing year. 

There is all the dirt and trash that has to be cleaned up. And, of course, the traffic: difficult at the best of times, chaos during carnival. The city has hundreds of “traffic facilitators” on the job just to keep vehicles moving.

And then there is the disturbing fact that people urinating in the street during carnival has become a significant problem.

Subsecretary Marcelo Maywald, reports that since parades (“blocos”) began marching, way back on January 20, a total of 805 people have been picked up for urinating in the street; 93 were women. Last year, 777 people were caught urinating in the street during marching band parades; 26 were women. Maywald says that as the number of foliões rises, the number of portable bathrooms on the streets rises. “A lot of people stand in line like good citizens. But there are people who just behave badly. We arrest them. We started arresting people three years ago. With people being taken into custody, we believe everybody is more aware of this problem.”

Maywald says that on February 20, 55 people were arrested for urinating in public, among them a Dutchman and an American. He also pointed out that this year blocos had time limits – a time to begin and a time to end their parade – besides predetermined routes with portable bathrooms.

City inspectors are also cracking down on irregular commerce during carnival: arresting street vendors without a license and confiscating their goods.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Secretaria de Ordem Pública do Rio intensifica ação para conscientizar foliões