FURIOUS Brazilian police have stunned visitors just a month before the Rio Olympics with a banner protest warning: “Welcome to Hell”.
Cops complaining about unpaid wages joined firefighters as more than 100 angry emergency service workers launched a dramatic demonstration at the arrival hall of Rio de Janeiro’s main airport.
Around 500,000 Olympic tourists will fly in to Galeao International next month, so today’s event there will pose more uncomfortable questions for organisers and the Brazilian government.
Protesting officers held up a banner saying: “Welcome to hell. Police and firefighters don’t get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe.”
Uniformed mannequins were laid on the floor to represent more than 50 officers killed in Rio de Janeiro this year.
A female officer with fake blood smeared on her face and hands held a mannequin dressed in a T-shirt reading “SOS policia”.
Brazil’s capital city has been hit with regular protests about the treatment of workers before the Games, which start on August 5.
And Rio police began street protests last week, including another at the airport, saying they had not been fully paid for months as Rio state hovers near bankruptcy.
An emergency federal bailout received last week means late salary payments are due this week, according to Brazilian news reports.
Rio is the first South American city to host the Olympics but fears have grown about the ability of the police to control crime during the event.
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Murders in the first quarter of 2016 were up 15 percent on the same period last year.
Street robberies are also on the rise, highlighted by the hijacking on Friday of a truck carrying TV gear for covering the Olympics.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes blames security problems on the state government.
He told CNN: “This is the most serious issue in Rio and the state is doing a terrible, horrible job.”
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