A view of Santa Marta slum in Rio de Janeiro - one of many favelas to have been 'pacified'. Photo: Reuters

Brazil on Monday launched a pilot project allowing tourists to visit some of its notorious slums, after the shantytowns have been cleared of drug dealers and other criminal elements.

With the nation eager to garner world favor ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the new venture will afford curious visitors a chance to see the interior of a favela, which sometimes are lawless shantytowns rampant with drug-trafficking and violent crime.

But President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he hopes to show that slum dwellers perhaps are impoverished but are just like people everywhere.

“People in my generation want to make sure that our children never refer to any neighborhood as a favela,” Lula said as he unveiled the new program.

“Favelas are neighborhoods, communities, like everywhere else,” the leftist president and former labor organizer said as he launched his “Rio Top Tour.” (more…)

The Vivaldo Lima stadium in in Manaus is being demolished and rebuilt ahead of the tournament Photo: Reuters

Along with the other candidates to host the World Cup in 2018, England had to select its host cities and stadiums well in advance. And so earlier this month, the Fifa inspection committee could ride the tube, visit the venues, talk to officials and end up with a firm idea of what they will be getting if England gets the nod.

It is unfortunate that the 2014 hosts did not have to go through a similar process.

Brazil were awarded the next World Cup via a short-lived rotation policy which was, in practice, simply a means devised to help Sepp Blatter deliver on a promise to take the tournament to South Africa.

In March 2003, Blatter decreed that South America’s turn would come in 2014 and a few days later the South American Confederation announced that Brazil was its only candidate and although Colombia briefly broke ranks, they had no serious expectations of success.

Brazil, then, has known for over seven years that the circus would be coming to town and Fifa’s official announcement in October 2007 only confirmed the obvious. (more…)