Brazilian police protesting unpaid salaries and officers’ deaths on Monday once again welcomed travelers arriving at Rio de Janeiro airport with banners reading: “Welcome to Hell” a month before the Olympic Games.
The protest by more than 100 emergency services workers, including firefighters, took place in the arrival hall at Galeao International Airport, which will be a key entry point for the expected half a million tourists visiting the Games starting on Aug. 5.
Officers held up a banner reading: “Welcome to hell. Police and firefighters don’t get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe.”
Photo: EPA
Mannequins dressed in uniform were laid out on the floor to represent the more than 50 officers killed in Rio de Janeiro so far this year. A female officer with fake blood smeared on her face and hands clutched a mannequin dressed in a T-shirt reading: “SOS policia.”
“We are here to show citizens and tourists from abroad the realities of Brazil,” veteran police officer Alexander Neto, 56, said. “They’ve been conned and we too have been conned. You have to understand there is no public security.”
Rio de Janeiro police began staging street protests, including one at the airport, last week, saying that they have not been fully paid for months as the state hovers on the brink of bankruptcy.
An emergency federal bailout received last week started to be paid out on Monday, local news reports said, with the government beginning to meet delayed commitments to emergency services workers, teachers, hospital staff and prison administrators.
Rio de Janeiro is set to become the first South American city in history to host the Olympics. However, there are growing fears about the ability of police to control crime during the Games.
Murders in the first quarter of this year are up 15 percent on the same period last year.
Non-lethal crimes such as street robberies are also on the rise, highlighted by the hijacking on Friday last week of a truck carrying US$445,000 of television equipment to be used for Olympics coverage.
David Cervantes, a Colombian tourist who came across the airport protest on his arrival in Rio de Janeiro, said he was shocked.
“It’s not the best welcome we could get from Rio de Janeiro, which has the reputation of being such a wonderful city,” Cervantes said. “I’m not quite sure what to think.”
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes admits that crime has become a serious issue on the eve of the Olympics, but blames the security problems on the state, not the city government.
“This is the most serious issue in Rio and the state is doing a terrible, horrible job,” Paes told CNN.
In addition to violence and the effects of a bruising recession, preparations for the Olympics have been plagued by Brazil’s political instability and a series of corruption scandals.
Huge construction companies building stadiums and other Olympic infrastructure have been implicated in a multibillion-dollar embezzlement scheme centered on state oil company Petrobras.
Now police are investigating the suspected embezzlement of subsidies for Brazilian athletes, O Globo television reported.
The probe centers on deals signed by sports confederations and SB Marketing e Promocoes, a promotional company, the channel said in a report aired late on Sunday.
The marketing firm was hired by the sports ministry to channel subsidies to fund athletes’ training, worth about US$9 million, it said.
SB Marketing declined to comment on the report.
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
RSS