Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup.
“The World Cup is what each player on a team has dreamed of their entire life,” said Jeffrey Bateson, head men’s soccer coach at Guilford College. “It can be a country’s only public or world exposure, so Brazil’s patriotism is on the line.
“I cannot begin to describe what it would feel like to play in that type of atmosphere, considering how much is at stake,” Bateson said.
Preparations for the summer tournament are fully underway — but not without a touch of controversy: the Rio “slum operation.”
The nation’s former capital is home to some of the world’s largest and most notorious drug gangs.
According to the BBC, nearly 3,000 troops were dispatched into the city to deter its drug gangs and to quell local violence.
Authorities are tapping deep into their resources to make the city a safer environment by the time of the tournament, which is set to begin on June 12, 2014.
Tanks, helicopters, trucks and military personnel armed with automatic rifles fill Rio’s poverty-stricken dirt roads. Military personnel are in process of conducting citywide raids in an attempt to eliminate gang activity, drug trade and illegal weapon use.
They are currently focused on occupying Maré favela, one of Rio’s most dangerous towns, particularly because it surrounds the Rio de Janeiro International Airport, where thousands of fans will arrive to witness the World Cup.
“We are monitoring the area closely and will be constant,” said Major Alberto Horita to Reuters.
“We believe that this is a very important mission that must be fulfilled,” said Minister of Defense Celso Amorim in a recent press release. “It’s a mission of temporary support, and naturally, there should be the participation of the armed forces in question of public security.”
Some residents of Rio, however, feel differently about the situation. They argue that the resources involved in pre-World Cup operations could have been allocated to address other, more pressing issues.
According to a BBC report, the same amount of money could have provided 40,000 schools, 1,200 hospitals or 540,000 basic dwellings.
In this light, this year’s World Cup not only highlights some of the world’s top athletes but also Rio’s drastic socioeconomic divide.
This divide is the reason for many citizens not approving of the tournament being hosted in Brazil. Most of Rio’s population cannot afford adequate footwear or consistent meals, much less tickets to a World Cup match.
Over 6,000 people are killed each year in Rio, according to Time. Many feel that the situation will remain unchanged — the way of life in Rio is merely on hold until the World Cup is over.
“This is just for the World Cup,” said Eulalia, a 73-year-old woman who declined to give her last name, according to Agence France-Presse. “When that’s over, the presence of the Army will end, and we’ll return to business as usual.”
