Six weeks before the Games are set to begin, Francisco Dornelles, the acting governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that the state has not yet received recently-approved federal funds to beef up security and transportation for the summer games.
“…if some steps are not taken, it can be a big failure,” Dornelles confessed.
The budget shortfall adds to the “perfect storm” Brazil is facing leading up to the Games, due to kick off on August 5.
From fears of a Zika virus outbreak, to a doping scandal in which Brazil’s only testing lab was suspended, ridiculous crime rates and political upheaval involving the country’s highest figures, Brazil is taking a PR beating in the weeks heading up to the opening ceremony.
Dornelles said that without the bailout money, the state could only afford to cover the expenses of the police force for a few more days…meaning there is the potential of anarchy running riot all over the city before a single Olympic competition transpires.
The state’s police officers have not been paid for overtime work for more than six months…and Rio is severely testing the patriotic duty of their law enforcement, placing them in a bind where they may have choose between finding a way to feed their own families or saving their homeland from international embarrassment.
The pending Olympics have already been embarrassed by headlines of an endangered Amazon Jaguar being shot to death in a torch lighting ceremony meant to be part of the pre-Olympics build up.
