Rio’s governor, Sérgio Cabral, said the 2014 World Cup, which will be held in Rio as well as other Brazilian cities, is also threatened.
Brazil's lower parliament on March 10 approved a bill giving a bigger slice of oil revenues to states that do not produce oil, a more which would reduce the income of oil-rich states like Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo.
Cabral and Rio politicians have reacted furiously. Cabral called the vote of approval of the bill a “lynching”, said it was unconstitutional. A banner placed on the Christ the Redeemer statue on a cliff overlooking the city reads “Against injustice, in defense of Rio.” Tens of thousands of people joined a protest march against the law on Wednesday, many of them state workers who had been given a day off for the event.
Cabral says the bill threatens losses for the state government of up to 7.2 billion reais ($4.1 billion) a year. Rio’s bid for the Olympics included planned investments of $11.1 billion. A study by a Sao Paulo business school for the Ministry of Sports has predicted that the games will inject $51.1 billion into Brazil’s economy in the period to 2027 and add 120,000 jobs a year up to 2016.
