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Without a major public relations campaign to reverse the impression that Rio is the Wild West, the steady stream of foreign visitors is not likely to resume -- even though, according to Ribeiro, only about 1 in 100 tourists will be the victim of a crime. Last year, after 528 people were murdered in April alone, President Jose Sarney sought to compare Rio's plight favorably with another land's ten-year civil war. "It's not possible that they are killing more people in Rio than in the unfortunate, cruel and unjust civil war in Lebanon," said Sarney. Perhaps. But no one ever claimed Beirut was a Carnival.