Rio Carnival Kicks Off With Samba, Blocos and Nod to #MeToo

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/world/americas/rio-carnival-me-too.html

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Gunfights have raged daily in several neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, as drug gangs battled over territory in recent weeks.

Residents have been lining up for hours in hopes of scoring a yellow fever vaccine amid an outbreak that has killed more than 20 people in the state.

But that didn’t stop thousands of people from pouring onto the streets on Friday as the city’s famed Carnival began, displaying Rio de Janeiro’s mesmerizing ability to keep chaos and carnage from derailing a party.

As samba schools had their first parades at the Sambódromo — a purpose-built stadium in which thousands of costumed performers appear each year — residents gathered for street parties that were heavier on politics and, many women hope, lighter on lasciviousness than years past.

The festivities, which officially run through Wednesday, have taken on a decidedly political tone as the country heads toward a presidential election in October.

Several blocos, as the informal groups that perform on the streets are called, plan to parody the country’s widely despised political elite. Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical pastor whose support for the annual event has been far from ebullient, is likely to be the subject of scorn.

President Michel Temer, meanwhile, will be honored by a bloco called “We have to maintain that, O.K.” The name references the president’s remarks to a businessman who was wearing a wire, which led prosecutors to charge Mr. Temer with corruption and obstruction of justice last year.

Politics weren’t the only topics at the front of mind during the elaborate festival, which is known for its debauchery. While the #MeToo movement has yet to reverberate strongly in Brazil, some women are demanding that men keep their hands to themselves during the drunken, sweaty, teeming days of Carnival.

Many have been staying cool with fans that say “No Means No.”