Brazil’s most expensive new stadium faces its first test

Mark Byrnes – The Atlantic, 05/24/2013

Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia has begun its second life. With workers hurrying to finish the stadium in time for next month’s FIFA Confederations Cup, Brazil’s capital city’s major stadium had its official inauguration last weekend.

The original Garrincha Stadium was built in 1974, and was considered outdated and incapable of serving the country’s upcoming international sporting events long before being torn down in 2010. It is being rebuilt for $750 million, not only the most expensive stadium of the 12 being erecting in advance of the 2014 World Cup, but the most expensive such project in the country’s history.

Plagued by delays and cost overruns, local officials say the stadium, which is designed to hold more than 70,000 fans, is 97 percent done. Only about 20,000 people were allowed to attend Saturday’s inauguration event. The event itself didn’t go as smoothly as hoped; the Associated Press reported complaints from those in attendance about restroom doors without locks, visible water leaks and poor cell phone reception. The price tag has upset a lot of Brazilians too, amid worries it will struggle to find consistent use after 2014 since Brasilia doesn’t have a team in the country’s top soccer leagues.

Read more…

World Cup 2014: Brazil opens 72,900 seat National Mane Garrincha Stadium

Ian Rodgers – Bleacher Report, 05/21/2013

The preparations for the World Cup finals in Brazil next year are gathering at pace as the country opened its latest stadium in the capital, Brasilia.

The new 72,800-seater National ManéGarrincha Stadium was unveiled on Saturday ahead of its first match, the Federal District league championship final between Brasilia and Brasiliense.

The new stadium is the fifth to be completed and handed over in readiness for the World Cup finals next year following the re-opening of the iconic Maracana Stadium last month, as the Daily Mail reported.

Read more…

Brazilian architect Niemeyer to be buried in Rio

AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 12/07/2012

Brazil’s beloved architect Oscar Niemeyer will be buried in Rio de Janeiro.

The 104-year-old Niemeyer’s body is being viewed at the City Palace in Rio, and a private funeral will be held later Friday.

Niemeyer designed the government buildings in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, much of the United Nation’s complex and countless other works in several nations.

Read more…

Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer hospitalized

AP/Boston.com, 10/17/2012

Renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer was hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro’s Hospital Samaritano, but his doctor said Wednesday that he was ‘‘fine’’ and in stable condition.

Niemeyer, 104, entered Rio’s Hospital Samaritano on Saturday, according to spokeswoman Bruna Tenorio.

The architect’s doctor, Fernando Gjorup, said by telephone that Niemeyer ‘‘is fine.’’

Read more…

 

Brazil’s capital asks for help to fight violence

AP/ABC News, 08/30/2012

Public security authorities in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia have asked for help from federal police to fight a wave of violent crime that is alarming residents.

The head of the federal public security department, Regina Mikki, says 100 federal officers will patrol for the next three months on the border between Brasilia and the neighboring state of Goias. She says police believe criminals behind a surge in car thefts and robberies are escaping to Goias.

Robberies known as “flash kidnappings” have risen sharply. In these cases, victims are held at gunpoint and forced to withdraw money from cash machines. In the first three months of this year, Brasilia police recorded 463 of these crimes. That is a nearly 36 percent increase over the same period in 2011.

Read more…

Brazil Opens Roads To Privatization

Kenneth Rapoza – Forbes, 8/10/2012

Privatization is back. It almost feels like the 1990s.

Well, sort of.

It’s not out right privatization, but the Brazilian government plans to announce billions in state asset sells to private investors through long term concession deals that would give the winning bidder the right to operate roads, rails and ports, many once built by the  government, for around 30 years.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is set to announce the concession projects next Wednesday in Brasilia, the nation’s capital.  The total amount is estimated to be around R$90 billion, or $45 billion over the next five years.

Read more…

Construction worker dies after fall at World Cup stadium site in Brazilian capital

BRASILIA, Brazil — Authorities say a 21-year-old worker helping build a World Cup stadium in Brazil died after a fall of 100 feet at the construction site.

The local government said Jose Afonso de Oliveira Rodrigues died Monday while working at the World Cup venue in the capital Brasilia.

The government said the companies in charge of the construction of the 70,000-capacity Mane Garrincha stadium were investigating the cause of the accident and giving support to the worker’s family. The companies told local media that Rodrigues appeared to be wearing his safety equipment at the time of the accident.

Read more…

 

Brasília celebrates 25 years as World Heritage Site

Agencia Brasil, 01/26/2012

(01/04/2010) © UNESCO / Ron Van Oers

On December 7, 1987, Brasilia was named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture – Unesco. Today there are 936 properties worldwide considered “great landmarks… the cultural or natural heritage of all mankind… having outstanding universal value.”

The government of the Distrito Federal, where Brasilia is located, has designated this year a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the event (“Ano da Valorização de Brasília como Patrimônio Cultural da Humanidade”). The principle objective will be to make the inhabitants of the federal capital aware of the need to protect and preserve the city’s monuments.

The Heritage Site of Brasilia is the largest in the world, covering 112.5 square kilometers. At the moment, the GDF (government of the Federal District) is renovating the Catetinho (a wooden building that was the resident of president Juscelino Kubitschek while Brasilia was being built) and building a monument (“Paneão da Pátria”), the last one designed by Oscar Niemeyer to be placed in the center of the city in the Praça dos Três Poderes.

Read more…

Workers at Brazil’s busiest airports announce 2-day strike to protest privatization

AP/Washington Post, 10/18/2011

Workers at some of Brazil’s busiest airports say they will go on strike Thursday and Friday to protest the government’s plan to privatize their operations.

The workers labor union voted in favor of the strike on Monday night. They said in a statement released Tuesday that they would stop operations at the airport in the capital of Brasilia and in the South American country’s most populous city, Sao Paulo.

Union president Ademir Lima de Oliveira was quoted in Tuesday’s edition of the newspaper O Globo as saying that the stoppage will include flight controllers.

Read more…

Autorregulamentação é o caminho para assegurar o direito de resposta

Associação Nacional de Jornais, 06/16/2011

*In late May, Paulo Sotero, Director of the Brazil Institute, went to Brasilia to participate in a forum on free press and judicial power. 

Participants from the "Forum Internacional de Liberdade Imprensa e Poder Judiciario": Dr. Jorge Santistevan, Ministra Ellen Gracie, and Paulo Sotero

No segundo painel do Fórum Internacional de Liberdade Imprensa e Poder Judiciário, a autorregulamentação foi apontada como a solução para o direito de resposta.

Não há consenso sobre a necessidade de legislação específica para a aplicação do Direito de Resposta. Opiniões divergentes a respeito ficaram evidenciadas no painel “Direito de resposta/Práticas nas democracias”, o primeiro da parte da tarde, do Fórum Internacional de Liberdade Imprensa e Poder Judiciário, realizado nesta sexta-feira (27/5) na sala de sessões da Primeira Turma do Supremo Tribunal Federal, em Brasília.

A ministra Ellen Gracie foi a presidente de mesa do painel, que teve como primeiro expositor, o jurista peruano Jorge Santistevan de Noriega, que foi Defensor do Povo (uma espécie de representante dos cidadãos em relação ao Estado). Ele considerou que o direito de resposta não tem uma única face, sendo outra face do direito da liberdade de expressão.

Read more…