When the
New Yorker ran a massive
investigative pieceon gang activity in Rio de Janeiro the week of the IOC's vote for on the location of 2016 Olympics, some Rio supporters
cried foul. Obviously the piece didn't sway
IOC voters, who awarded Rio 66 votes. But it does underscore one of the major challenges facing the city as it prepares to host the first Olympic Games in South America.
Rio, large swaths of which are controlled by gangs, has one of the highest murder rates in the world. City officials will have to spend the next seven years addressing not only transportation and infrastructure needs (they need to quell traffic problems and double the city's hotel capacity, for starters) but also the crime and violence, and experts say it's going to be much harder to sweet-talk the gangs than the IOC.