RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Summer Olympic Games seven years ago, Wagner Bastos was a hotshot car salesman for Rio Citroen-Peugeot. Some months he earned 17,000 Brazilian reais — about $5,200 now and much more back then.
But Brazil's fortunes — and Bastos' — have taken a sickening tumble. His last monthly paycheck in June was for 1,400 reais ($425) — too little to cover his rent or school fees for two children. So Bastos, 54, quit and started driving a taxi.
"I needed cash urgently," he says.
In the past, hosting the Olympics often allowed newly prosperous countries to strut on the world stage and showcase their glitziest cities.