Political games on, Rio on track

Rio de Janeiro’s mayor said on Thursday 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.

Mayor Eduardo Paes said he had already spoken with Brazil’s vice president 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, a member of Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, said 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.

“I think the Olympics is above governments and particular officials,” Paes said. “I don’t see any risk for the Olympics because of these political problems.”

Despite federal investigators telling Reuters recently that they are probing alleged corruption in Olympic projects, Paes said he was confident that no problems would be found with anything under his responsibility.

Federal prosecutor Carlos Lima is a leader of a task force that has steered Brazil’s biggest-ever corruption investigation involving a massive kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras.

He said that in addition to suspicions of corruption in the expansion of Rio’s metro and the revitalisation of a port area, projects directly linked to the Olympics were being investigated. However, Lima would not provide details on what specific projects.

Preparations for the Olympics are overwhelmingly under the responsibility of Paes’ municipal government, and most of the builders involved in projects for the Games’ infrastructure are companies that have been caught up in the wider graft probe.