Travel & safety — Brazil

The fifth largest country in the world, Brazil is a Portuguese-speaking country with a robust economy.

It consists of 26 states and a Federal District.

Tourist facilities are excellent in major cities but vary in quality in remote areas.

Demonstrations and political/labor strikes are common in urban areas and may cause temporary disruption to public and private transportation.

While the protests have not been directed at U.S. citizens, there have been incidents of vandalism which have affected U.S. government facilities.

In some cases, Brazilian police have used tear gas, riot control, and mounted units to disperse protestors.

If you become aware of protests in your vicinity, you should remain indoors and close doors and windows.

U.S. citizens in Brazil are urged to monitor local news reports and to plan their activities accordingly.

Protests anywhere in the world have the potential to become violent.

Even demonstrations or events intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence.

U.S. citizens traveling or residing in Brazil are advised to take common-sense precautions, avoid large gatherings or other events where crowds have congregated to demonstrate or protest, and comply with the instructions of local authorities.

Check the website of the Embassy or consulate nearest you for current information on demonstrations.

Brazilian police and media report that the crime rate remains high in most urban centers, including the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and is also growing in rural areas within those states.

Brazil's murder rate is more than four times higher than that of the United States, and rates for other crimes are similarly high.

Street crime remains a problem for visitors and local residents alike.

Foreign tourists, including U.S. citizens, are often targets, especially in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife.

While the risk is greater during the evening and at night, street crime also occurs during the day, and safer areas of cities are not immune.

Incidents of theft on city buses are frequent.

You should keep a copy of your passport with you while in public and keep your passport in a hotel safe or other secure place.

You should also carry proof of your health insurance with you.

The incidence of crime against tourists is greater in areas surrounding beaches, hotels, discotheques, bars, nightclubs, and other tourist destinations.

It is especially prevalent prior to and during Carnival (Brazilian Mardi Gras), but also occurs throughout the year.

Several Brazilian cities have established specialized tourist police units to patrol areas frequented by tourists.

Use caution when traveling through rural areas and satellite cities due to reported incidents of roadside robberies that randomly target passing vehicles.

Robberies and "quicknappings" outside of banks and ATMs occur regularly.

In a "quicknapping," criminals abduct victims for a short time in order to receive a quick payoff from the family, business, or the victim's ATM card.

Some victims have been beaten and/or raped.

You should also take precautions to avoid being carjacked, especially in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and other cities.

In airports, hotel lobbies, bus stations, and other public places, pick pocketing and the theft of hand-carried luggage and laptop computers is common.

You should "dress down" when in public and avoid carrying valuables or wearing jewelry or expensive watches.

"Good Samaritan" scams are common.

If a tourist looks lost or seems to be having trouble communicating, a seemingly innocent bystander offering help may actually be a participant in a scam.

Take care at and around banks and ATMs which accept U.S. credit or debit cards.

Travelers using personal ATM or credit cards sometimes receive billing statements with unauthorized charges after returning from a visit to Brazil, or discover that their cards were cloned or duplicated without their knowledge.

If you use such payment methods, carefully monitor your bank records for the duration of your visit.

While the ability of Brazilian police to help recover stolen property is limited, we strongly advise you to obtain a "boletim de ocorrencia" (police report) at a "delegacia" (police station) if any of your possessions are lost or stolen.

This will facilitate your exit from Brazil and assist with insurance claims.

Be aware, however, that the police in tourist areas are on the lookout for false reports of theft for purposes of insurance fraud.

Do not buy counterfeit and pirated goods, even if they are widely available.

These goods are illegal in the United States, and if you purchase them you may also be breaking local law.

Brasilia: Brasilia has significant crime problems.

Reports of residential burglaries continue to occur in the generally affluent residential sections of the city.

Public transportation, hotel sectors, and tourist areas report the highest crime rates, but statistics show that these incidents can happen anywhere and at anytime.

The "satellite cities" that surround Brasilia have per-capita crime rates comparable to much larger cities.

Police reports indicate that rates of all types of crime, including "quicknappings," have risen dramatically in Brasilia in the last two years.

Brasilia's Central Bus Station or "Rodoviaria" is a particularly dangerous area, especiall

U.S. citizens are subject to the laws and regulations of any foreign country they are visiting or residing in.

Foreign laws and legal systems can be vastly different from our own.

Penalties for breaking the law can be more severe than in the United States for similar offenses.

Persons violating Brazilian laws, even unknowingly, may be expelled, arrested, or imprisoned.

Penalties for possession, use, or trafficking of illegal drugs in Brazil are especially severe, and convicted offenders can expect long jail sentences and heavy fines.

The Brazilian judicial process can be slow and cumbersome.

There are also some things that might be legal in Brazil, but illegal in the United States.

For instance, you can be prosecuted under U.S. law if you buy pirated goods in Brazil.

In addition, engaging in sexual conduct with children or using or disseminating child pornography in a foreign country is a crime, prosecutable in the United States.

In November 2008, Brazil passed a series of laws designed to strengthen protection of children against sexual exploitation.

Brazilian police in tourist areas such as Rio de Janeiro are on the lookout for foreigners inappropriately touching or photographing minors.

If you break local laws in Brazil, your U.S. passport will not help you avoid arrest or prosecution.

According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and customary international law, if you are arrested in Brazil, you have the option to request that the authorities alert the nearest U.S.

Medical care is generally good but it varies in quality, particularly in remote areas, and it may not meet U.S. standards outside the major cities.

Prescription and over-the-counter medicines are widely available.

Emergency services are responsive.

Travelers may call a private ambulance company or call 192 and request an ambulance for a public hospital.

Callers must stay on the line to provide the location as there is no automatic tracking of phone calls.

Other important phone numbers include, Emergency 199, Police 190 and Fire Department 193.

Sao Paulo: Expatriates regularly use the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo.

It is inspected and certified by the Joint Commission International and offers international service assistance.

The hospital phone number is 011-55-11-3747-1233.

Rio de Janeiro: In Rio, many expatriates go to Hospital Samaritano (Rua Bambina 98, Botafogo; tel. 2537-9722; ambulance tel. 2535 4000); or Pro-Cardi­aco, which specializes in cardiac care but also offers other specialty services (Rua Dona Mariana 219, Botafogo; tel. 2131-1400 or 2528-1442, ambulance tel. 2527-6060).

Information on vaccinations and other health issues in Brazil, such as safe food and water precautions and insect bite protection, may be obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) hotline for international travelers at 1-877-FYI-TRIP (1-877-394-8747) and their " Yellow Book ".

For information about outbreaks of infectious diseases abroad and for general and country specific health information for travelers, consult the World Health Organization (WHO).

General Vaccinations: All travelers should visit either their personal physician or a travel health clinic 4-8 weeks before departure, as some vaccines and malaria prophylaxis must be given a few weeks before travel.

All travelers to Brazil, and those transiting the country, should have prior vaccinations for Hepatitis A, typhoid, and Hepatitis B.

Routine immunizations including MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis), and varicella should be up to date.

Neither cholera nor polio vaccines are recommended except under specific circumstances.

Consult the Yellow Book for more information.

Insect-borne Illnesses: Insect-borne illnesses are common in Brazil, principally yellow fever, malaria, leishmaniasis, and dengue.

Vaccination is available to prevent yellow fever, and prophylactic medication can be used to lower the risk of malaria.

Chagas disease (a/k/a American trypanosomiasis ) transmission has been eliminated in every state except Bahia and Tocantins through an aggressive program of insecticide spraying.

The first-line of protection against all insect bites is the use of insect repellents (less than or equal to 30% DEET content for children above two months of age), but mosquito nets, mosquito coils, aerosol sprays, protective clothing, use of screens, or staying in air-conditioned environment when available are also alternatives.

Dengue: There is no vaccine for dengue.

Dengue usually presents fever, rash, and body aches, or there are no symptoms and clears relatively quickly; however, it can be rapidly fatal in a minority of severe cases.

Consult CDC Yellow Book for the signs and symptoms of severe dengue.

Malaria: Malaria is present throughout the year in forested areas of the Amazon region, but it tends to be seasonal (southern summer) elsewhere in the country; mostly on the periphery of cities and towns in the Amazon region.

There is little to no risk of malaria in other areas of Brazil.

Yellow Fever: The yellow fever vaccine is recommended for travelers over nine months of age to the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazones, Distrito Federal (including the capital city of Brasília), Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins, and designated areas of the following states: Piauí, Bahia, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.

The vaccine is also recommended for

While in Brazil, U.S. citizens may encounter road conditions that differ significantly from those in the United States.

The information below concerning Brazil is provided for general reference only and may not be totally accurate in a particular location or circumstance.

Travelers should consider obtaining an Inter-American Driving Permit to carry along with their valid U.S. license if they plan to drive while in Brazil.

Such permits can be obtained through AAA or other sources.

Driving on Brazil's inter-city roads can pose significant risks.

As is the case elsewhere in the region, poor driving skills, bad roads, and a high density of trucks combine to make travel via roads considerably more hazardous than in the United States.

There are no laws requiring truckers to take mandatory rest stops and they often drive for excessive periods of time.

All major inter-city routes are saturated with heavy truck traffic and for the most part have only two lanes.

Road maintenance is inadequate and some long-distance roads through the Amazon forest are impassable much of the year.

Private cars and public buses are the main modes of inter-city road travel.

Buses can range (depending on the route and the price) from luxurious and well-maintained to basic and mechanically unsound.

Bus hijacking, usually non-violent, occurs at random in some areas of the country.

Apart from toll roads, which generally have their own services, roadside assistance is available only very sporadically and informally through local private mechanics.

The fastest way to summon assistance in an emergency anywhere in the country is to dial 193, a universal number staffed by local fire departments.

This service is in Portuguese only.

Many motorists in major urban areas and more developed parts of the country carry cellular phones, and can be asked to assist in calling for help.

Traffic Laws: There are severe penalties for a number of traffic offenses.

If you are involved in an accident that results in injuries or death, you may be fined for compensatory and punitive damages, as well as charged with criminal penalties.

Enforcement of traffic laws ranges from sporadic to non-existent, so motorists should not assume that others will necessarily follow even the most fundamental and widely-accepted rules of the road.

Some important local rules and customs include the following: Seatbelts / Child Car Seats: Brazil requires the use of seatbelts for everyone in the car.

Brazilian federal law requires car seats for all children under the age of 7 ½.

From age 7 ½ years to 10, children cannot ride in the front seat of the car, and must be in the back seat wearing a seatbelt.

Speed Limits: The maximum speed limit on major, divided highways is 120 kmph (74 mph).

Lower limits (usually 60 kmph or 40 mph) are often posted in urban areas depending on the road and the nature of the neighborhood.

Speed limits are widely ignored and rarely enforced.

However, an increasing number of towns and cities have electronic/photographic devices (marked "Fiscalizacao Eletronica") which verify speed and take photos of violators' cars and license plates as a basis for issuing speeding tickets.

Brazilian drivers tend to brake suddenly when encountering these devices.

Many cities and towns have erected speed bumps, which are sometimes severe and may be unpainted and unmarked.

Yielding the Right of Way: Drivers must yield the right of way to cars on their right.

Compliance with stop signs is rarely enforced, so many motorists treat them as yield signs.

Driving Under the Influence: Drivers with any measurable content of alcohol in their blood are in violation of the law.

Checkpoints are often set up in urban areas where randomly chosen drivers are required to exit their vehicles and perform a breathalyzer test.

Local Driving Customs: Drivers often use flashes or wave a hand out of the window to signal other drivers to slow down.

In addition, pedestrian "zebra" crossings are strictly observed in some place