Rio Olympics Disaster Looms: Missing Gitmo Prisoner, Superbug, No Police
The Olympics are about to crash and burn before the Opening Ceremonies.
The 2016 Summer Olympics begin in Rio next month and everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. The police have told tourists they cannot protect them, scientists found a superbug in the water, and no one can find a missing Gitmo prisoner in Brazil.
The police put out a “Welcome to Hell” sign outside of Rio’s main airport.
Rio police officers to visitors: "Welcome to hell" https://t.co/jKaCBCQtDS pic.twitter.com/pvvslkL53m
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) July 5, 2016
The Rio government has not paid their police or firefighters “for months.” From The Los Angeles Times:
State Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame recently said that officers should receive their delayed payments by early next week, but this did not stop protests at the Galãeo international airport.
“We’re fed up with horrible work conditions, punishing hours, obsolete weapons, worn-out bulletproof vests and guns that don’t work,” one protester, who did not want to be identified, told local media. “There’s no paper in the offices, nothing has been cleaned and we have no gas for our squad cars.”
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said the federal government has done a “terrible job” bringing in security for the Olympics, but also said this could affect Rio after the games. The majority of events will take place in safer spots, “but some tourists are likely to stay in central neighborhoods closer to problem areas.”
Speaking of security, former Gitmo prisoner Abu Wa’el Dhiab has slipped into Brazil from Uruguay where he chose to live after U.S. authorities released him. Abu Wa’el Dhiab, 44, attempted to enter Brazil three other times, but the country never let him in “because his name appears on an international database of suspected terrorists.”
Uruguay said Dhiab can come and go as he pleases, but Brazil authorities said they have no record of him “entering the country.”
Avianca Airlines alerted their employees about Dhiab. They also said he might use a fake passport to travel.
The U.S. military captured Dhiab in 2002 and accused him of “forming part of an al-Qaeda terrorist cell.” No one formally charged him with the crime and they released him in 2009.
Then there’s the superbug in Rio’s waters. Since February, scientists have said the waters in Rio pose more danger to athletes than the Zika virus. The scientists have finally published their findings on the drug-resistant bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae or CRE. They flagged the Flamengo and Botafogo beaches:
“This bacteria colonizes the intestine and it goes along with feces to the hospital sewage,” Picao said. “We believe that hospital sewage goes into municipal sewage and gets to the Guanabara Bay or to other rivers and finally gets to the beach.”
One sailor commented on the water:
“It’s a nice sailing area but every time you get some water in your face, it feels like there’s some alien enemy entering your face,” German Paralympic sailor Heiko Kroger said during a recent visit to Rio. “I keep my nose and my lips closed.”
Kroger believes the super bacteria may have caused a severe skin infection in one of his teammates during recent training.
There’s no telling what else will happen before Opening Ceremonies on August 5!
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Comments
On the bright side, hookers are only asking $9 for a threesome.
and all STDs are complimentary…
Greece was financially devastated by the ’04 games. Its hard to see this working out well for Brazille.
I’ve been watching the run up events where some of the competing athletes are being chosen. Most of the competitors are amazing. The largely continuous advancement of skills grows every 4 years. It’s why the shelf life of a top Olympic athlete is so short. For an athlete to compete in consecutive Olympics is unusual. A Michael Phelps is a freak of nature mostly limited to a few sports.
Then politics raises it’s head & stains the experience. As the previous commentator noted it bankrupted Greece. In the London Olympics I remember the homage to the British healthcare system. In Beijing the perfectly coordinated commie youth. Governments piggyback on the experience to promote themselves.
What will Rio do? Given the Brazilian dysfunction that has characterized these South American Olympics all along, what will Rio do?
It’s hard to tell a young athlete at the very top of their game, that this is “their time”, but this is “not the place”, for the fact that it might very well be their last time and their last place if any athlete come into contact with the existing myriad of health issues or physical harm from the lack of security; It very well would be a life changing event and not in a good way. The USA Olympic Comm. should treat this health and political crisis as they have done in the past and keep the kids home.
Police can’t protect tourists? When is this different from any other time? Or anywhere else in the world?