A small seaside resort has been turned into an armed fortress, after radical groups threatened to disrupt Brazil's 500th anniversary celebrations today, with mass street protests.
Porto Seguro, the place where Portuguese explorers founded their New World colony on April 22nd, 1500, is crawling with 5,000 heavily-armed military policemen drafted in to protect visiting dignitaries. Fearful of planned demos by the country's indigenous, landless and black movements, the Brazilian President, Mr Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has scaled back his presence at official events.
A spokesman for Mr Cardoso said: "The President fears that these protests will end in a death on the street and that this dead person will become a martyr.
"But although he is not attending the evening's events because of security problems, he will still attend the daytime ceremonies because no hoodlum is capable of challenging the authority of a democratically elected president."
The government's controversial party plans, called Brazil 500 years of Discovery, have angered its many poor. In particular the country's 350,000 indigenous Indians have expressed outrage at the celebrations, pointing out that the land was occupied long before the Portuguese arrived.
Some 2,500 Indians from across Brazil have gathered in Porto Seguro for today's march against the government. They are expected to be joined by around 3,000 members of assorted radical groups, in a protest about the continuing disparities between Brazil's rich and poor.
March co-ordinators say they plan to force their way to the site of the official celebrations and present a letter to the President outlining their discontent.
Mr Carlos Federico Mares, president of the National Foundation for Indians, said: "The government is creating a climate of tension through a police force that uses intimidation and violence against the Indians.
"We want to remind people that when the Portuguese arrived there were around five million Indians living in Brazil who were exterminated by the colonialists. For the remaining ancestors of these people, now is not a time of celebration but of reflection."
The heavy police presence has attracted much criticism in the local media, who accuse the government of turning the party into a show of military strength.
But Mr Cesar Borges, Governor of Bahia - the north-eastern state where the celebrations are taking place - said the 5,000 officers on the street were justified because the President's safety "worries all Brazilians".
"These organisations are manipulative and everything is going to be done to keep order in the area," he said.
"Violent protests will be stopped at all costs because they hurt democratically elected societies."
The problem-plagued 500 years celebrations, yesterday hit a further snag when it was announced that a £1 million sailing ship, a replica of the one manned by the Portuguese explorer, Pedro Alvares Cabral, was not seaworthy.
The 16th century-style boat - complete with white sails bearing a red cross - will remain anchored in a port about 450 miles from the official event because of technical problems.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Sport and Tourism said: "Unfortunately, our replica ship will not be attending the official naval parade at the 500 celebrations."
Brazil, a country larger than Europe, was discovered in April 1500, after Cabral was blown off course while heading for India. After sighting land, Cabral claimed the new territory for the Portuguese crown and named it Terra da Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross). The former colony declared independence in April, 1822. Apart from its Portuguese descendants, among Brazil's 150-million population live the world's largest African, Japanese and Italian communities - outside their native countries - while in the south are the children of German and Scandinavian settlers.