Rio's Carnival kicks off under the barrel of gun

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's raucous Carnival celebrations kicked off in Rio de Janeiro on Friday with tens of thousands dancing and singing in the streets, defying a recent surge of gun violence in the city's slums.

Carnival's samba-dancing King Momo -- the Lord of Misrule -- and his shimmying Queen and Princess were handed a giant symbolic key to the city in a sun-lit park as a band played Rio's boisterous anthem "the Marvelous City."

"The city has its problems but now we're full of hope, and we salute all those who come to visit us for the world's biggest Carnival," Mayor Cesar Maia said, urging revelers not to let the violence spoil their annual party.

King Momo, known the rest of the year as Alex de Oliveira, an architect, called on his loyal Carnival subjects to "play a lot and forget about our woes."

The main parades start on Sunday but neighborhood groups known as "blocos" began the party on a beachside avenue and in city streets across Rio on Friday afternoon.

Rio has some 300 blocos and its most traditional, founded in 1918 with the name "Cordao do Bola Preta," is expected to lead 150,000 people into the downtown area early on Saturday.

This year's festivities are being held under the shadow of gunfights and turf battles that have killed dozens of people in recent weeks and exposed Rio's dark side.

A national security force has been sent to Rio to fight drug traffickers that control its teeming slums, or favelas. At least 15 people have been killed in the past week in clashes.

The crackdown intensified in the days leading up to Carnival, with police occupying some of the favelas.

CARNIVAL LEADER MURDERED

A well-known leader of the Salgueiro samba school and his wife were slain execution-style after leaving a Carnival rehearsal on Tuesday.

Public outrage came to a head this week after a 6-year-old boy was killed, dragged through the city under a speeding vehicle by carjackers.

"People won't pass up the chance to celebrate, but they will take lots of precautions," said Teresa Sofia, 42, a psychologist. "I'm tired of seeing people armed with guns in street parades."

The security plan for Carnival calls for 1,000 police officers and 750 city guards to patrol the Sambadrome, where the top samba schools parade over Sunday and Monday nights in a globally televised spectacle.

Police units will also deploy around the favelas, whose residents ironically are the heart and soul of Carnival.

The 13 top samba schools take center stage for about one hour each over the two nights, with themes this year that range from Norwegian cod fish to South African culture. They feature about 5,000 performers each, including dancers, drummers and beauty queens.

Officials say about 700,000 tourists will visit for Carnival, up 2 percent from 2006, but Rio's hotels say they expect a drop in occupancy rates to 85 percent from 93 percent last year, partly because of crime fears.

"The violence issue is a notorious problem. You don't need to be a genius to see it," said Alfredo Lopes, president of the association that represents Rio hotels. "There is a lack of manpower, lack of equipment, lack of management."

(Additional reporting by Andrei Khalip and Pedro Fonseca)