Rio de Janeiro: Stick together; don’t accept drinks from strangers; don’t visit favelas and don’t forget the mosquito repellent.
That’s just some of the consular advice being offered to foreign football fans heading to the World Cup in Brazil next month.
The advice for fans from the United States, England, Germany and Argentina comes as Brazil races to be ready for the tournament against a backdrop of social unrest over the cost of the event, poor public services and crime. Much of the worst violence is concentrated in slum districts known as favelas, where so-called police pacification units have been battling drug traffickers and crime gangs.
But tourist havens in Rio which will host seven matches, including the July 13 final also suffer regular assaults and robberies while authorities recently revealed a surge in murder rates.
Homicides in Rio state as a whole rose 23.6 percent in March compared with last year, and 10 percent in Rio city itself, the Rio Institute for Public Security said in figures released Saturday.
Friday saw a fatal shooting in the Rocinha slum easily visible from the luxury hotel where the England team will stay.
Robberies were up by around a third with tourist hotspot such as well-heeled Ipanema some of the worst afflicted. Last month, a youth grabbed a woman’s gold necklace just as she was being interviewed about crime on live television.
State secretary for security affairs, Jose Mariano Beltrame, indicated Friday that 2,000 extra military police would be deployed in Rio during the World Cup. “We are bringing forward a blueprint which will be put in place during the World Cup,” said Beltrame.
Rio will have to manage an influx of around half a million World Cup fans domestic and foreign combined according to city hall estimates.
