RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Two groups of men stood on opposite rooftops perched on a hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach, taunting one another. It was a macho showdown between opponents wielding unlikely weapons — kites.
On this July morning in the impoverished neighborhood, they were using taut, sharp-edged kite lines — known as “cerol” in Portuguese — to slash their opponents’ lines, ripping their kites from the sky.
Kite fighting has caused horrific injuries and even deaths, and a bill moving through Brazil’s Congress is seeking to prohibit the manufacture, sale and use of the razor-sharp lines nationwide, with violators facing one to three years in prison and a hefty fine.
The lines are already outlawed in some congested areas of Brazil, including Rio, but that didn’t appear to trouble the men jousting with their kites above Ipanema; indeed, some of those flouting the law were police officers. A couple of…
