RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s president is lashing out at critics who say the country is wasting money on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Speaking at a slum in Rio on Monday, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the selection of the city extraordinary and done “despite the servile thinking from a portion of the Brazilian elite.” He calls the Olympics “one more step in the esteem of the Brazilian people.”
Brazil beat Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid in an International Olympic Committee vote in October. In January, the head of the IOC’s coordination commission for Rio said the city was on track to deliver a “very good” Olympics.
