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Brazil looks unlikely for 2016 Olympics
06/08/07 16:29
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 A robust campaign by officials and athletes around Rio to prove they are worthy hosts of the 2016 Olympics might not be enough to lift the loco city out of real obstacles.
The war of attrition between criminal gangs and military police forces - a primary concern - came to a head again last week with a massive offensive by 300 police officers on the city's largest slum.
The resulting pandemonium saw one shootout next to a school, where classes had to be called off.
The push was part of an ongoing effort by the government to curb organised crime in the region which has so far presented little more than an irritation to gangsters, flush with drug and protection money, who have come to enjoy more legitimacy than the state across the city's malcontented favellas.
Despite the inconvenient lack of security in the Brazilian city, billboards and stadiums have been tagged with the Olympic rings to raise local expectations.
Credit where it's due, the $2 billion (£984.4 million) preparations for the ongoing Pan American Games - Rio's first major event of its kind - were on time and included superb Olympic-scale stadiums and other facilities.
But besides the incessant street violence, judges will be put off by the notorious unruliness of Brazilian fans, as well as doubts about the quality and comfort of the athlete's village.
Add to that endless traffic jams and real pollution problems and you have an unlikely candidate, despite the fact that International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has declared Rio "a strong contender" for the 2016 games.
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