Brazil’s armed forces on Saturday rolled out armored vehicles and heavy weapons to patrol key tourist areas like Copacabana beach ahead of Rio de Janeiro’s hosting of the Olympics next month.
That could come as reassuring to some: Just last week, members of a huge police force sent to secure crime-ridden Rio before the Games came under gunfire. The shooting incident in the troubled north of the city underlined the challenge to ensuring safety for the 10,500 athletes and 500,000 tourists expected at the Aug. 5 to Aug. 21 Olympics, the first ever to be held in South America.
Brazil is deploying about 85,000 police and soldiers, double the number used for the London 2012 Olympics, with the vast majority in Rio and others in cities where soccer matches are to be played.
Photo: EPA
On Saturday, 1,500 to 2,000 military staff fanned out across Rio to other sites such as the refurbished Plaza Maua, which has become a place to see and be seen in the shadow of its landmark Museum of Tomorrow designed by Santiago Calatrava.
At the Maracana stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies are to be held, an anti-aircraft unit was watched over by a soldier with a bazooka. A navy frigate cruised off Copacabana, arguably Rio’s busiest tourist area, while armored tanks rumbled around strategic points of highways.
A total of about 65,000 security personnel are to be deployed in Rio, with another approximately 20,000 in the five soccer competition cities. The military component is 40,000 strong, with about 22,000 in Rio.
While police watch streets, soldiers will be mostly responsible for patrolling the strategic transport corridors linking the four main Olympic hubs across Rio.
The soldiers will be backed by 70 armored cars and 28 helicopters, with the full force in place by Sunday next week, when the Olympic Village is to open in the western Barra neighborhood.
Lack of boots on the ground is not the only reason Rio’s crime rate has been growing this year. Police, who have seen more than 50 of their ranks killed, are angry after months of not being paid overtime and receiving salaries late in May and last month.
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