Rio in crippling ‘public calamity’ less than 2 months ahead of Olympics
The Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has declared a financial emergency over a major budget crisis, less than two months ahead of the Olympic Games.
The state's acting governor issued the decree of “public calamity” on Friday in a bid to “adopt all necessary emergency measures to ration essential public services in order for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to take place.”
Francisco Dornelles also warned that extreme financial measures would need to be adopted by the state to successfully host the games on August 5-21 for Olympics and on September 7-18 for Paralympics in the provincial capital Rio de Janeiro in order to prevent a “total collapse in public security, health, education, transport and environmental management.”
The statement did not specify what kinds of measures were exactly needed to be implemented for the government to honor “its commitments” but made it clear that failure to act would jeopardize the whole event.
“It is for the competent authorities to adopt exceptional necessary measures to rationalize all public services, with the aim of realizing the [Olympic] Games,” it further said.
Most of the Rio 2016 Games funding is provided by Rio’s city government, but the state is responsible for areas such as transport and policing.
The country’s Interim President Michel Temer has promised substantial financial aid, blaming the crisis on a tax shortfall, particularly from the oil industry that is currently facing a grave recession.
The decree also came in the midst of a political chaos that has crippled the country.
Temer took over from Dilma Rousseff after she was suspended as president for an impeachment trial. Temer, Rousseff’s then vice-president, later joined her opponents in calling for an impeachment.
The impeachment bid against Rousseff was launched over allegations that she fiddled with government accounts in 2014 so she could increase public spending as a means of wooing voters for re-election.
Rousseff has condemned the impeachment drive as a coup, pledging to fight on during her trial.
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