Brazil's Ministry of Labor and Employment said that with less than three months to go until the start of the Summer Games, work on parts of Rio's Olympic Park and Olympic Village "was halted" yesterday amid "fears for the safety of workers," according to Gaier & Downie of REUTERS. Officials who reviewed work on a television tower in the Olympic park and digging work at the Olympic Village "shut down operations at those and two other sites." They "did not say exactly what the problems entailed or how serious they were." The Olympic Park, where 16 sports will take place at nine venues, "was declared open last month but final touches to the tennis courts and sponsors' areas are still being made." The shutdown "came just weeks after a bicycle lane built as part of the legacy infrastructure collapsed into the sea killing two cyclists" (REUTERS, 5/9).
SECURITY NEEDS: The AP's Savarese & Wade noted Rio de Janeiro State Security Secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame "acknowledges that cuts" of US$550M to his budget "pose a risk to the Olympics when they open in three months." He said, "I wish I could have more policemen. I wish they could work twice as much on the streets." Savarese & Wade noted security "sits at the top of a long list of worries for South America's first games." Beltrame said that Rio will "deploy about 65,000 policemen and up to 20,000 soldiers to guard the games, the largest contingent in Brazilian history." The number "is about twice as large as London's force four years ago" (AP, 5/6).
