Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said that "preparations for the Olympics will not be impacted by Brazil's political turbulence, and he guaranteed there was zero corruption in the city's projects for the games," according to Rodrigo Viga Gaier of REUTERS. Paes already spoke with Brazil VP Michel Temer, "who could become the country's leader next week if the Senate votes to suspend President Dilma Rousseff from office and move forward with the impeachment process against her." Paes said that "he was assured by Temer that regardless of who is in the presidency, the Olympic Games will have the full support of the federal government." Paes: "I think the Olympics is above governments and particular officials. I don't see any risk for the Olympics because of these political problems."
Despite federal investigators probing alleged corruption in Olympic projects, Paes said that "he was confident that no problems would be found with anything under his responsibility" (REUTERS, 5/5).
STAY POSITIVE: In Sydney, Nicole Jeffery wrote the IOC "asked its stakeholders to be positive about Rio’s Olympic preparations because it believes criticism is more likely to hurt than help as the Brazilian city struggles to be ready to host the Games in August." Int'l Hockey Federation President Leandro Negre said that "the IOC had asked the international federations to refrain from criticising the Rio organisers." Negre said, "The message we have received from the IOC is that you have to say everything is fine because if you don’t say that you will create bigger problems" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/9).
