Brazil enables the black market

livemint.com:

Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil Fifteen miles upstream from this city, built where the Iguazu River meets the larger Paraná, are the towering Iguazu Falls. The largest of the falls and the main attraction is the “Devil’s Throat," an exhilarating and terrifying site. For a real thrill tourists can view the cascade of rapids, 492 feet wide and 269 feet high, tumbling over the precipice from a catwalk in the river.

There’s also a promenade overlooking the falls, where I lingered one evening last week to watch a glowing red sun sink behind Argentina, across the river. Soon the stars glittered against a midnight-blue sky. The rushing waters seemed to roar louder in the darkness as a reminder of the awesome power of creation and the infinity of the Creator.

It’s no wonder a million visitors come every year to see this place. But this city—“the Mouth of the Iguazu" in English—is also famous for another reason: It sits on one of the most lucrative smuggling routes in South America. The triple-border area, which includes Argentina and Paraguay, is a haven for ambitious entrepreneurs intent on skirting the high cost of legality in the Brazilian economy.

Millions of consumers in this country are their customers every year in the black market. It isn’t hard to understand why Brazilians thumb their noses at customs duties. Lady Justice has never been blind here, and today it’s as bad as ever.