Brazil's Rio state authorities have declared a “state of public calamity” over a major budget crisis, in order to release emergency funds to finance the Olympic Games. The decree authorizes the state 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”.
Every year police in Brazil are responsible for around 2,000 deaths, Amnesty International said as it marked the 20th anniversary of the infamous Candelária massacre in Rio de Janeiro. On the night of 23 July 1993, eight young men and women died after a gang of hooded men opened fire on a group of some 50 street children sleeping on the steps of Rio de Janeiro’s Candelária church.
Amnesty International has called on the Brazilian authorities to urgently address the needs of some 1.600 families made homeless by a forced eviction in a settlement in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.