Perhaps for the average traveler but Brazil doesn’t need the bad press on a big shot medal Olympian who has brought every new and celebrity camera in the world to focus on this. Bottom line, do they really want to put 3 American Swim Team members in some hell hole for a year over a sign that can be screwed back into a wall in 10 minutes flat? Do they really need the bad publicity? They’ve already lost untold numbers of tourists now that there’s no question about their polluted beaches and low life scum mugging police. Press this and they’ll lose more tourists. It’s Brazil who has a black eye in this. Keep at it and they’ll have two black eyes and a butt beating. They’ve lost a lot more than that $11k. Temer and Paez can’t be that stupid.
Well said.
I am with you on all those points, but yes...Temer and Paez can indeed be that stupid.
The problem here is that in America, we see it as a broken sign that cost $10 and can be screwed back in with a screw-gun and a few screws. It is logical. It makes sense. Nobody has to go to court, the sign is back on the wall, and it is over. That is how it SHOULD be, and generally, how it is done in the USA.
Logic in some of those 3rd world hell-holes, of which I feel that Brazil largely is, is not the primary mover of things like this. They viewed this (among other things) as an insult to the shopowner/people/police/government/country of Brazil. Not logical, but there it is.