Rio Asks, What Now After the Games?
the city’s fortunes.
The authorities invested billions of dollars in sports venues, transit systems and so- called pacification projects in poor urban areas, arguing that the Olympics would serve as a linchpin in overhauling the city. In the weeks before the Games, Mayor Eduardo Paes even contended that Rio would be “the safest city in the world.”
Many residents have welcomed the increased security. “It’s nice to see soldiers patrolling the streets, at least where I live,” said Cassius Almada, 39, a high school teacher who lives in Copacabana. “It could be a lot worse.”
But those living beyond the up- scale seafront neighborhoods said the increased security had little effect in communities that have long been troubled by violence.
Maria do Rosário Silva Santos, 54, who was visiting Rio from Brasília, the capital, said she had been stunned to see young men toting guns casually in Acari, a working- class neighborhood in north Rio where she was staying during the Games. She said, “As far as I can tell, nothing has changed.”
Some security experts emphasized that considerable risks persisted around the city, especially in favelas, the poor areas that generally emerged as squatter settlements and are controlled by drug gangs. Because of Rio’s financial crisis, plans fell apart to establish a network of policing outposts in Maré, one large area of favelas.
Julita Lemgruber, the director of the Center for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship at Candido Mendes University in Rio, said the Olympics had actually increased bloodshed — but only in the vast favelas, where the police have been battling militias and drug gangs.
In Complexo do Alemão, a large group of favelas, a flare- up of gun battles during the Games left at least two residents dead and two police officials wounded.
“Of course, there’s more attention to these episodes because they’re taking place when the world is looking at Rio,” said Heder Martins de Oliveira, the vice president of Brazil’s National Association of Police Officers. “But this is a dilemma that Rio faces on a daily basis.”
Many residents have found solace on social media, where they commiserate about their experiences and document each episode of crime in hopes of spurring the authorities to action. Among dozens of Facebook groups focused on crime is “Where I was robbed,” a user-generated map of brutalization and despair.
“Hello, hello, authorities!” one Facebook user, Eliane Cattapan, wrote. “With the arrival of all the tourists, I’m much more afraid of the rise in street crime than terrorism.”