RIO DE JANEIRO (Brazil) - THE Rio Carnival has kicked off in stylized debauchery with organisers handing out 59 million free condoms to lusty party goers.Brazil's five-day Carnival got into high gear with its famous parades in Rio de Janeiro adding choreographed extravagance on top of lusty street parties and fancy-dress balls already underway.
Locals, tourists and television audiences around the world were treated to thousands of dancers and the drum bands from the city's samba schools marching behind topless, sequined beauties for two nights of colourful processions.
The parades, a carefully timed competition that comes at the mid-point of Carnival, mark the climax of what all of Rio calls "the greatest show on Earth."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended Sunday night's parade - the first time he has joined the Rio festivities since taking office in 2003.
All of Brazil has thrown itself into the partying with gusto, setting aside for the duration of the pre-Lent Carnival the deepening impact of the global economic crisis, and chronic crime.
Foreigners, though, were extra cautious in Rio despite the deployment of 9800 police to boost security. Nearly 100 were victims of robbers, most of them armed gangs, in the lead-up to the festivities. In two of the worst cases, gangs trussed up all the guests of two city hostels at gunpoint, stealing cash, iPods and cameras in pre-dawn raids from nearly 50 tourists.
New mayor Eduardo Paes tried to minimize the violence when he opened the partying on Friday, saying Rio was "the best city in the world to have fun during Carnival."
Foreigners said they were aware of the risk, but they were not dissuaded from joining the partying.
"I think the most tourist zone is not so dangerous, and I don't go to the most dangerous zones," Thomas Spagnolatti, a 35-year-old Italian tourist sitting in a Copacabana beach cafe, said. -- AFP
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