Don’t Go to Rio
Brazil is struggling to ensure Rio de Janeiro, arguably the country’s most chaotic city, is prepared to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games scheduled to start on August 5.
Rio is facing an array of hurdles as the reality of hosting one of the most revered and heavily attended sporting competitions sets in. It may be too much to handle for Brazil, which finds itself in the midst of a crippling recession.
1. Police Don’t Have Enough Money to Buy Toilet Paper
Up to an estimated 500,000 people are expected to travel to Brazil for the Summer Olympics. Brazil’s national intelligence agency has already warned of the risk of radical Islamic terrorism at the games, noting that there has been a rise in the number of Brazilians sympathizing with jihadist groups like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
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ISIS has threatened to attack Rio during the games. There is also the street crimes and violence that afflicts the city on a daily basis. Yet, an ongoing recession and budget shortfalls mean security forces and local police lack funding. Rio’s acting governor Francisco Dornelles recently revealed that he is still awaiting a nearly $900 million payout from the federal government to pay for police and workers on Olympic venues. He declared:
How will people get to places without underground transportation? How will people feel protected in the city without security? We have to give proof that we are equipping security and the ready mobility for people to come to the country.
In a decree demanding the federal emergency funds, Dornelles warned the lack of money to pay for public services “can even cause a total breakdown in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management.”
“Police helicopters are grounded, patrol cars parked. The city’s security forces are so cash-strapped they’re reportedly begging for donations of pens, cleaning supplies and toilet paper,” reports International Business Times.
2. The Ministers Responsible for Hosting the Event Keep Resigning
Weeks before the Olympics, Brazil’s Minister of Tourism, Henrique Alves resigned along with other high-ranking officials in what has become an exodus of allies of the embattled leftist President Dilma Rousseff who is facing impeachment.
Sports Minister George Hilton and Col Adilson Moreira, who led the National Force for Public Security responsible for guarding venues during the Olympic Games, have also renounced their senior positions.
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