Brazil guarantees Rio safety

RIO DE JANEIRO. — A top Brazilian security official promised on Sunday to “guarantee absolute peace” at the Rio Olympics, despite safety fears after a massacre claimed by Islamist militants in Paris. “Brazil has become a leading example for (security at) major events,” Andrei Rodrigues, secretary for large events in Brazil’s justice ministry, said in an interview with CBN radio.

Rodrigues said “no one can be indifferent” to Friday’s bloodshed in Paris, where at least 129 people were killed and scores more wounded. One of the coordinated attacks involved three suicide bombers outside France’s national stadium, where President Francois Hollande was among 80 000 people watching a France-Germany football game.

But Rodrigues said Brazil – with experience from hosting the 2014 football World Cup, a papal visit in 2013 and other mega events – has proved fully prepared for the huge challenge of hosting the Olympics in Rio next summer.

“This is our task, our mission, to guarantee… an atmosphere of absolute security, absolute peace,” he said. Rodrigues reiterated plans to deploy 47 000 security personnel and 38 000 members of the military, double the total number of security staff at the 2012 London Olympics.

Brazilian police work alongside counterparts around the world to study their methods and Rio will feature an international coordination center for different police forces and “another specifically for police agencies combating terrorism,” he said.

“These are actions that we already put into place so that we arrive at August 5 completely prepared,” he said.

“I would say Brazil has made the effort, has the ability to prepare, to organize the security at the Games.” Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach insisted on Sunday that the Paris terror attacks, which left 129 people dead, “will absolutely” not affect the French capital’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics.

Bach listed three reasons why Paris can remain optimistic over their campaign in an interview with French television programme Stade 2. “We are talking about an Olympic Games which is taking place in nine years time,” said Bach.

“Lots of things can happen in the world between now and then and I hope that the politicians meeting at the G20 (in Antalya in Turkey) will approve measures which will allow us to beat terrorism and barbarism.” The second reason, said the IOC chief, is that “it’s not just Paris and France which are affected but the entire international community.

“Thirdly, it’s not just sport but all events of a certain stature.” Paris faces competition from Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles and Rome to host the 2024 Olympics with a decision to be made on September 13, 2017. — AFP.