MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
As Olympics opening Day approaches, Brazilians take to the streets to protest
At the Rio rally some with Brazil's flag draped over their shoulders and wearing the national colors of yellow and green, chanted “Out Dilma! Out corruption!” 
Likewise demonstrators also took to the streets in four states to denounce interim president Michel Temer as a “traitor and an usurper”. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Brazil on Sunday, some calling for the permanent ouster of suspended President Dilma Rousseff and others demanding her return to office.Rousseff was impeached and suspended in May for allegedly violating budget laws. A Senate trial on permanently removing her is expected in late August.
A few hundred people gathered on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach Sunday to push for Rousseff's permanent removal. It's one of 11 states to see anti-Rousseff protests.
Those who rallied in Rio, some with Brazil's flag draped over their shoulders and nearly all wearing the national colors of yellow and green, chanted “Out Dilma! Out corruption!”
Those same messages were written in English on banners for the foreign tourists. Some 500,000 people are expected to visit Rio to attend South America's first Olympics between Aug. 5 and 21.
“This is a warm-up party, you might say, for us to keep the pressure on the Senate ... to show that the Brazilian people will not accept Dilma Rousseff remaining in power,” said Carlos Carvalho, one of the organizers of the Rio protest.
Meanwhile, demonstrators in four states were denouncing interim president Michel Temer. He has recognized that he will likely be booed when he goes to the Games' opening on Friday, while Rousseff has said she will not attend.
Rousseff's allies also promise protests on Friday as the Olympic Games open.
Some analysts said the protest against Rousseff is a way for the people to send a message to Brazil’s senate. If 54 out of 81 senators voted against her, Rousseff will be permanently removed and interim president Temer could stay on the job until the end of her term in 2018. But Protests in Brazil were not only about who gets to keep the presidency until 2018.
Last Wednesday, members of Amnesty International protested outside the Summer Games headquarters in Rio de Janeiro against the killings committed by the police around the time of big sporting events in the city. According to organizers, police killed more than 40 people during May 2016 in the Olympic city alone.
With more than 85 thousand security force members in Rio, Amnesty International officials are worried that the violence and killings could increase.
“In the years that mega sportive events take place there is an important increase in the number of people killed by the police in the city of Rio and the state of Rio,” Renata Neder, Human Rights adviser for Amnesty International Brazil, said.
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Read all comments“Last Wednesday, members of Amnesty International protested outside the Summer Games headquarters in Rio de Janeiro against the killings committed by the police around the time of big sporting events in the city. According to organizers, police killed more than 40 people during May 2016 in the Olympic city alone”.
Aug 02nd, 2016 - 08:51 pm 0Very laudable of Amnesty International to point out the number of killings by the police....however :
They don't mention who the victims were.....innocent bystanders ? or perhaps drug dealers killed in shoot outs ? or common criminals, already warming up to assault (and kill, if necessary) the poor, naive tourists ?
Does AI even bother to mention the number of cops killed by drug dealers, not just in shoot outs, but in ambushes, or in their own homes ? Of course not....that would make the criminals look bad.
AI is hardly ever impartial, exactly the same as the Human Rights activists - whenever some criminal is taken prisoner, they rush to the Police precincts to guarantee the criminals' physical integrity, but when an innocent citizen is killed by the criminals, the HR activists disappear - they are never seen comforting the victims' families.
I wonder why ?
Does anyone know if all the Olympic Village apartments are going to be used for social housing after the Olympics? It is much needed and I doubt the build is good enough to actually sell.
Aug 03rd, 2016 - 07:50 pm 0The general public - tax-payers - are not allowed to use the new metro line for the duration of the games. Annoying for them in the short-term but understandable and I would guess it is also a nod to the safety of people attending the games. But presumably this is one expense that might benefit the public post-games.
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Aug 04th, 2016 - 06:06 pm 0The Olympic village consists of 31 highrises, with a total of 3600 apartments. The construction company in charge of the project has admitted that the crisis has affected the sale of the apartments, as so far they have sold only 5% of the total. By the prices they are asking , doesn't look like they will be used for 'social housing' ; the privileged location - at least as far as the 'cariocas' are concerned - translates into R$ 650,000.00 for the more 'modest' apartments, of 78 square metres, and R$ 4 million for the 450 sq.mt. rooftop flats.
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