Welcome to Rio: Crime-central
Less than a week before South America stages its first Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro is starting to look like a military camp. This is not the coup that Dilma Rousseff, the suspended president, has constantly warned against but the biggest security operation ever mounted for the Games amid fears of rising crime, terrorist attacks and street protests.
On its final approach to the city the torch relay was halted by protesters who blocked its procession through a coastal resort in the south.
Demonstrators were angered by the late payment of salaries by a bankrupt state government and by poor public services when billions have been spent on Olympic stadiums. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets, which succeeded in snuffing out the torch and forcing the bearer to escape on a bus.
When Rio was awarded the Olympics in 2009 a tearful President Lula announced that it marked Brazil’s entry on to the world stage. He is now under investigation for corruption and the country is in the grip of economic and political crisis.
A poll showed that 63 per cent of Brazilians were opposed to the Games and, yesterday, acting President Michel Temer said he is ready to be jeered during the opening ceremony.
The grimmest sweepstake in Rio is not about which sprinter will take the 100 metres gold but on which day a terrorist attack by Islamic State will take place.
The city has drafted in 85,000 soldiers, sailors, police and private security guards to protect stadiums, beaches and tourist sites, twice the number used in London.
But the more realistic concern is crime. Brazil is undergoing its worst recession in almost a century and Rio has been hit hard. The state recently declared a ‘‘financial calamity’’ and is so broke that it is selling the historic governor’s palace for $14 million – a drop in the ocean compared with the state’s debt of $8.2 billion.
Unpaid police officers have staged SPORT p5 protests at Rio airport, holding up signs reading ‘‘Welcome to hell’’ and warning that unless they are paid there will be no security. Underground train drivers are also threatening to strike, potentially bringing to a halt the metro extension – still unopened – that is meant to take visitors to the events.
Security fears are uppermost in visitors’ minds. Mutilated human body internal investigators from the Pol´ıcia Militar, but not why they showed up unannounced at a victim’s home seeking a police document – or who gave them our address.
More Pol´ıcia Militar showed up at our building just before midnight. They were refused access by our doorman, but they handed over a homemade-looking document that confirmed they got our address from the Tourist Police.
It was at this point, after the second visit, that we knew we had to get out. We packed our bags and slept about two hours.
TUESDAY
In Brazil, police jurisdiction ends at each state’s border. We left Rio de Janeiro state in the early morning, and during our journey, we read about the arrests of two police officers over Jay’s kidnapping.
Jay caught the next flight out of the country to Canada, and I followed on Wednesday morning. We’d already planned to shift to parts were recently found next to the beach volleyball arena in Copacabana and athletes have been robbed at gunpoint and knifepoint in some of the popular tourist areas. This week a transvestite mugger tried to rob an Australian TV crew filming on Copacabana beach.
Rio’s efforts to secure the visitors have suffered their own setbacks. This week a policeman heading to work as a guard at an Olympic venue was robbed of his gun, watch and phone; two navy jets patrolling the coast collided; and
the notorious anarchist group Black Bloc, whose demonstrations have been marked by violence, arson and looting, have said that they will hold a march hours before the opening ceremony.
While many in Rio are gloomy, drug dealers have taken the initiative and started to market cocaine and crack in plastic wraps with labels bearing the Olympic logo and the slogan ‘‘Rio 2016’’. Canada after the end of the Paralympics in September, and were lucky to have our work permits in hand.
I’m a Sunday Star-Times journalist, and I was extremely lucky to have support from the paper’s owners Fairfax Media to assist with us leaving the country. Their help was invaluable.
NOW
In all honesty, the story doesn’t end as abruptly as I’ve told it but, for various reasons, we’re not able to share all the details just yet. Let’s just say, it’s easily the weirdest thing that will ever happen to me in my lifetime.
To a Kiwi who’s never been to Rio, it might be hard to wrap your head around. To expats and Brazilians, much less so: to them, the biggest surprise is that Jay laid a complaint. He’s offered his full cooperation with the investigations and prosecutors have given a positive response to his request to give further evidence via video conference. As hard as it’s been for Jay to leave his jiu jitsu academy – he says his ‘‘life is ruined’’ – and for us to leave our friends, we know we did the right thing.
If he wasn’t a foreigner, if I wasn’t a journalist, and if the Olympics weren’t on Rio’s doorstep, we doubt the case would have been handled with the urgency and seriousness that it has. Obviously, we’re grateful for their investigations, but this entire debacle is emblematic of wider corruption in Brazil’s public agencies – and that’s the problem that needs solving.
We are truly thankful to Cariocas – the people of Rio – for sharing their city with us, and for their and other Brazilians’ messages of support and solidarity. Cariocas have lived in fear of their own police for decades, and they’d much rather have reliable public services than stadiums. If the leaders of Rio and Brazil want a lasting Olympic legacy for the city, they know what they need to do.