When my father was working in the city of Campinas, Brazil near São Paulo, we were told not to wear any visible jewelry upon getting off the airplane as little kids would look for items they could rob. This was during the seventies, things are much worse.
In the late ‘80s I was a travel agent. A student couple came in and wanted a South American Air Pass. The female student was American and had traveled South America before. The male student was a Scandinavian exchange student, very blond and fair skinned.
When they returned, they gave me an account of their travels all over South America. Their most memorable experience of the trip was being robbed and threatened with broken bottles twice within four hours on the famous Copacabana beach in Rio.