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Brazil’s Rio state declares financial disaster before Games

Mr Dornelles highlighted in the decree that Olympic teams would begin arriving this month to acclimatise for the Games, which start on August 5.

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However, said Mayor Eduardo Paes on Twitter, “The state’s financial emergency in no way delays the delivery of Olympic projects and the promises assumed by the city of Rio”, Reuters reports.

Rio de Janeiro state governor Francisco Dornelles has declared a state of emergency over a major budget crisis, just 50 days before the Olympics in a bid to release additional funding to fulfill obligations during the games.

The city of Rio de Janeiro – not the state – is largely responsible for the Olympics.

It stressed that the government could fail to honor its commitments to host the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are scheduled to take place August 5-21 and September 7-18, respectively.

President Dilma Rousseff was suspended last month by the Brazilian Senate, and will face an impeachment trial next month.

She has been replaced in the interim by her vice president, Michel Temer, who comes from the center-right PMDB party – the same grouping that runs Rio de Janeiro and the state housing it.

The ongoing financial turmoil has resulted in some schools being shut and hospitals running low on critical supplies of medicines and syringes.

The decision to cut services and security ahead of the Olympic Games “is not only a shock but is also incredibly worrying, especially given the bad history of police killings and murders”, Amnesty’s Brazil director, Atila Roque, said in a statement. And the government is confronted with double-digit inflation, unemployment at a record 11 percent.

Along with paying for state police during the Summer Games, Rio de Janeiro state is also committed to paying for construction that will extend the metro to the Olympic Park as well as facilities to clean the waters that sailors will use during the Games.

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Rio state employees and pensioners are owed wages in arrears.

Rio declares 'state of calamity' amid cash crisis ahead of Olympics