The bottom line is that flying down here sucks right now. I totally agree with the article posted above. It's total bull. Brazil does not have the amount of traffic to require gate hold procedures and sequencing. We don't have that many planes. ATC work sucks. They can't handle more than 3 planes at a time. Often we have to wait at the gate because the hold short area is too "crowded" with 4 planes waiting for take off. They give you a 7 mile separation and even then it's not "safe" enough to take off between landing traffic. It's pathetic. I've never seen anything worse.