Can Brazil deliver on safety for World Cup, Olympics?

Anna Jean Kaiser | Special for USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Pope Francis saw unbridled passion — and chaos — from Brazilians during the first day of his visit to the South American country. How Brazil's security forces handle the pontiff's week-long visit is seen by many as a test run for two global sporting events to be hosted there – the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Brazil faced scrutiny over its crime rate — it has the seventh-highest homicide rate in the world and only 8% of reported crimes are solved, according to a recent report — from the day it was awarded the prestigious events, but concerns have intensified in the past month after steady protests at the Confederations Cup soccer tournament and a string of brutal violence.

The most jarring headline came when an amateur soccer match turned ugly in Pio XII, Maranhão, a rural city in northern Brazil. The referee stabbed a player — who later died — when he refused to leave the field. Angry fans stormed the field, stoned the referee to death, decapitated him and placed his head on a stick. Brazilians did not dismiss the incident, but said a gruesome crime in a remote part of the country should not be seen as representative of security in the major cities.

"That event is absurd, out of the ordinary. This would not represent any risk in Rio because there's so much security in place to make sure everything runs smoothly. The Brazilian government won't run risks of something horrible such as this," says Rodrigo Calvet, 34, a Rio native and masters student of social anthropology.

But Sarah de Rose, a 24-year-old Canadian interning at a local non-governmental organization in Rio, says visitors should be careful — she was robbed at around midnight in the Ipanema area of Rio as she tried to hail a taxi.

"From my own personal experience, and from what I've heard from others, I think foreigners are often subject to crimes here in Rio when they find themselves in situations that they already know they shouldn't be in," she told USA TODAY Sports. "I knew that walking alone by myself at that time wasn't the right thing to do."

The Pope's visit, his first overseas trip as pontiff, has been a source of pride and concern in Brazil. A native of Argentina, "the people's Pope" arrived in Rio on Monday and is to appear at several high-profile public events, including an open-car greeting to followers along the 2.5 mile stretch of Copacabana beach and a vigil in an open field. World Youth Day, which spreads events over several days this week, is expected to draw more than 2 million people to the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazilian authorities are aware the world is watching. Of particular concern is Pope Francis' decision to reject a covered "popemobile" so that he could be closer to the crowds. He got closer than planned shortly after he arrived Monday when his driver took a route that put the pontiff in a traffic jam instead of on roads cleared in advance. When crowds rushed his car and reached inside to greet him, his secretary grew concerned, but the pope seemed "happy," news reports said. The incident caused Brazilian authorities to increase security for the Pope's visit to "high risk."

"This is, without a doubt, the most complex police operation in the history of Rio de Janeiro," said Roberto Alzir, the sub-secretary of Large Events from the State Security Secretariat. "We have several events and thousands of tourists scattered throughout the metropolitan area. Because of this, World Youth Day is the equivalent to the Olympics in terms of security."

Bigger events coming

Yet the Pope's visit and World Youth Day don't compare to the Olympics and World Cup in terms of scale. Consider that next summer thousands of soccer fans will criss-cross the country — which is only slightly smaller than the United States — for 64 games in 12 host cities during a four-week tournament. Organizers expect 600,000 international visitors for what's considered the world's largest single-sport competition. They'll visit major cities as well as remote areas such as Manaus, the gateway to the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil is a soccer-crazed nation with five World Cup championships, the most of any country although the last was won in 2002. More than 160 teams internationally, including the U.S., are in the midst of World Cup qualifying with 31 countries making the final field. As the host nation, Brazil is guaranteed a spot. All six cities that hosted Brazil's 1950 World Cup — Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo — will again be the site of matches, and the famed Maracanã stadium in Rio will be the only stadium to be used for both tournaments.

Coming off a gold medal in the Confederations Cup, Brazilians have high expectations. They hope to witness Brazil's return to glory in the final, where more than 76,000 fans are expected at Maracanã. The tournament's audience globally likely will challenge the record books again: FIFA says a record 3.2 billion people watched the 2010 World Cup in South Africa on TV.

After Brazilians catch their breath, the sporting spotlight returns 24 months later. In August 2016, Rio will become the first South American city to host the Olympics, which will bring 10,500 athletes, more than 21,000 members of the news media and 70,000 volunteers. The local organizing committee has a planning and operations budget of $13.3 billion to transform venues in Rio, a city of more than 6 million residents, and elsewhere in Brazil.

Brazil's security system passed a major test with the Confederations Cup, a World Cup dry run that concluded in June. Massive political protests erupted at the same time the tournament began, prompting millions to take to the streets to protest corruption and frivolous government spending, principally in relation to the expenditures on the World Cup and Olympics.

"The biggest challenge was met: (we hosted) the better Confederations Cup. We had around 50,000 spectators per game and nobody had problems," Brazilian Minister of Sports Aldo Rebelo told USA TODAY Sports.

Security for the Pope's visit is coordinated by the federal government and will integrate all levels of the country's security forces, a recipe likely to be repeated during the World Cup and the Olympics. Security will be overseen by some 14,000 police officers from the metropolitan region, close to 10,000 armed forces personnel, 1,300 officers from the National Security Force, in addition to the federal police, highway patrol and municipal guard.

The protests, which have continued for weeks, have been mostly peaceful. Consequences for tourists have been mostly inconvenience, such as when hundreds of travelers were forced to walk to São Paulo's International Airport due to protestors blocking roadways.

But getting caught between demonstrators and police could represent a risk, as it was for Travis Foxhall, a 22-year-old American in Brazil for the Confederations Cup.

"Although police did their best to keep the crowds back, young Brazilian students could be seen shouting on their knees waving Brazilian flags in front of oncoming traffic," Foxhall said of his experience arriving at the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the Mexico-Italy game.

"To arrive to the stadium, we had to ascend a highway ramp, but as we approached, protestors fleeing the police ran past us to escape large white clouds of tear gas," Foxhall said of his experience arriving at the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the Mexico-Italy game. "To avoid the gas, my friend and I ran as well, hoping to not be involved in the conflict," he said.

The clash between protestors and police brought Brazil's security system to the forefront. In a statement, FIFA declared the Confederations Cup "was a very good example of the great collaboration with the security authorities. There were no major incidents."

'Be smart and sharp'

While protests and street crime are legitimate worries, the threat of terrorism at large sporting events is the greatest concern for authorities.

The 12 World Cup host cities will be equipped with surveillance and integrated command centers, staffed with police and military personnel, in addition to two large security centers in Rio and Brasília that will monitor security nationwide. There will be more than 1,000 surveillance cameras in Rio de Janeiro.

"Because of the size of the event and the need of integration between the forces, strategic planning for it began nearly a year ago," Rio state Secretary of Security, José Mariano Beltrame told USA TODAY Sports. "We bet on the modernization of police, from the academy to the fleet. We bet on other security forces using the Integrated Center of Command and Control."

Rio has improved its safety — the homicide rate in the city has been cut in half since 2005. But lesser incidents remain common, and the U.S. State Department classifies Rio as "critical" for crimes such as pick pocketing and credit card fraud. According to a study by the Brazilian Center for Latin American Studies (CEBELA), only 8% percent of reported crimes in Brazil are solved.

Elaine Henriques, a Rio resident for 58 years said "the most common crimes in Rio are petty theft, armed assaults and car robberies. More violent crimes and instances of assault are not very frequent, or happen more in the periphery of the city."

For those planning to visit, she offers common-sense advice: "Always be aware when you're walking on the streets and don't bring or wear anything of great value. Be smart and sharp."

Contributing: Léo Siqueira in Sao Paulo, Roxanna Scott in McLean, Va.