Today’s What The Hey story:
A Brazilian judge on Wednesday issued an order to prevent Ryan Lochte and James Feigen, two of the American swimmers who claimed they were robbed at gunpoint during the Olympic Games, from leaving the country as doubts emerged over their testimony about the episode.
So, first authorities complain that he didn’t want to report it to the police, then they want to detain him. What the hey?
Luckily for Lochte, he had already left the country.
The thing is,
While controversy simmers over the episode, it is not uncommon for the police in Rio to be implicated in armed assaults of both Brazilians and foreigners.
Shortly before the start of the Olympics, Jason Lee, a 27-year-old jujitsu champion from New Zealand, said he was briefly kidnapped here by police officers and forced to withdraw the equivalent of about $800 from his bank account.
As I posted earlier, the persistent rumor is that the robbers were in a marked police car.
We talked about this in today’s podcast,
Wednesday August 17: Brazil and the Olympics, Mexico, Venezuela and other stories….click to listen….. https://t.co/YEPv6ij1cN
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) August 17, 2016
“hey, the Iranians got $400M in unidentifiable swiss francs and euros. Where’s mine?”
Frank – you hit it on the nail! More seasoned travelers would have greased palms more generously.
Anyone with experience with cops in Latin America is not surprised. Some are honest, some not so honest. When I arrived in Venezuela for my job, one the first things my new supervisor told me was the way to finesse bribes to cops onto expense reports: dinner w PDVSA people. I soon found out there was a reason why I was so informed. Nor is Venezuela the only country for which I have a corrupt cop story.
At the same time, I had a very good experience w cops in Venezuela. I arrived in Anaco via colectivo taxi at 3:30 in the morning from Maiquetia after a flight from Bolivia. Management in Bolivia had given me NO contact information for the company in Anaco, such as phone number or addresses, apart from the manager’s name. I went to the local police station to find out if they had the manager’s home phone. They did not, but let me sleep in the cops’ dorm room, and drove me to the office in the morning. My supervisor suggested that I deliver a bottle of whiskey to the police station- at company expense, of course. The whiskey was not a bribe, but a token of appreciation.
Gringo,
The Vz cops that helped you were very nice. Glad to see you had that experience.