Brazil hosts 2016 Olympic Games, and they open a new chain of corruption scandals in the country. The experts on Latin America sure that’s not a surprise, taking into account the world experience in the preparing to the OG last decades. Brazil’s post-Olympics hangover will be formidable.
In 2009, when the 2016 OG were awarded to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was happy,the whole country was celebrating, and the President Luiz Inacio da Silva proclaimed proudly:
“Now we are going to show the world we can be a great country.”
The year 2009 was very tough for Brazil, many people thought that country had finally “turned the corner,” but today shows that this conclusion was premature. The country couldn’t use in a full and proper way that impressive economic performance, which was key for Brazil in the gaining credibility on the world stage.
Low inflation in the early 2000s gave to Brazil a chance to start an economic growth, and the forthcoming OG made this chance more solid. But in 2010, Brazil’s economic trajectory has been downhill. Now the consumer credit is drying up, and the household debt is skyrocketing. The corruption scandal with Petrobras and Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment diidn’ add to Brazil more credibility. Most Brazilians expect that OG impact will be negative, indeed.
