So near, yet so far for Rio’s poor

RIO DE JANEIRO: In the hills that hug Maracana Stadium, many Brazilians saw the flash and glitz of the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics from rooftops with exposed

RIO DE JANEIRO: In the hills that hug Maracana Stadium, many Brazilians saw the flash and glitz of the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics from rooftops with exposed wiring and water pipes, amid trash-filled streets separated from the spectacle by a highway and train tracks. Mangueira is but one of the thousand favelas in Rio de Janeiro, a slum marred by gang violence and poverty that sits squarely in the shadow of the pageantry of South America’s first Olympic Games. “The poor, we don’t really get to experience the Olympics. We are close in distance, but far away,” said Luiz Alberto Araujo, a 30-year-old doorman who works in the posh Ipanema beach but lives in the slums. “We still have fun, but this party is for foreigners, for the rich.”

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