Rio de Janeiro’s olympic legacy: Public security for whom?

Abstract

As Rio de Janeiro struggles to hold itself together through the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, its much lauded public security Games plan, including its highly controversial police pacification program—long promoted as one of the cornerstones of Rio’s Olympic legacy—descends into a state of near total collapse. This paper takes an intimate look at what is likely the last days of this contentious pacification policy, the part it plays in the wider ‘Games Security Plan’, and how and why it has been implemented in the lead up to the 2016 Summer Olympics.