Just two weeks ago, the world's honeymoon with US president Barack Obama appeared to have ended in heartbreak.  After Obama made a last-minute decision to lobby the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen on behalf of his hometown Chicago, the body gave the windy city -- and by extension, the president, it appeared -- a resounding back-handed slap across the face by voting it out of contention in the very first round.  While liberal Chicken Littles scurried frantically to avoid the imminently falling sky sure to crumble around the Oval Office, Obama's supposedly patriotic antagonists ostentatiously celebrated the national embarrassment.  So much for "America First."

Further south, Brazilians lined the streets of major cities to party, as only they can, following the news that Rio was chosen by the Committee to host the 2016 Olympics.  While president Lula da Silva issued a number of "told ya so"s to world leaders and reporters that had doubted his boastful predictions a week earlier that Brazil would capture the 2016 honors, pundits began churning out pieces arguing that one of the world's next superpower had finally been anointed, just like China a year earlier.  Some celebrated Brazil's coming rise.  Others -- like Newsweek's Mac Margolis -- stomped their feet in temper tantrums of disbelief.  Either way, everyone seemed to agree: America was done.

What a difference a few weeks can make.  The Nobel committee's announcement that they had chosen Obama as this year's recipient of the peace prize wiped clean any egg the young president may have still had on his face, and rendered the Olympic Games a suddenly superfluous sideshow to the actual business of international relations, like solving the problems of world peace, climate change, and nuclear disarmament.

Since the initial enthusiasm in response to the country's successful Olympic bid, Brazil has been forced to come back down to Earth and confront very real questions about its future and the suitability of Rio to host international athletes.  Abroad, the Brazil continues to enjoy international standing as an up-and-coming power house, but at home the scene is not nearly so rosy.

Yesterday morning, violence erupted of the sort expected in Kabul, Baghdad, or Somalia circa 1993 (or, uh, now, for that matter), not the second largest city of South America's biggest country.  According to the Associated Press:

Drug traffickers shot down a police helicopter during a gunbattle between rival gangs Saturday, killing two officers in a burst of violence...It was not clear what sort of weapon or weapons hit the helicopter, but [the head of Rio state's military]said it was unlikely to have been an anti-aircraft missile. Such weapons have been found in the hideouts of drug traffickers along with other heavy, military-grade arms such as grenade launchers and .50-caliber machine guns...

They said at least eight buses were set on fire in other slums. Television images showed motorists fleeing for cover as automatic-weapons fire crackled in broad daylight amid the worst violence the city has seen in months. Images broadcast by Globo TV showed flames shooting from the helicopter wreckage, with little more than charred pieces and an intact tail remaining after the fire was doused.

Oddly enough, the burning helicopter crashed into a city soccer stadium. 

Then on Sunday, the government ordered over 2,000 police officers to patrol the streets of Rio in a show of force against the city's various organized crime gangs, and to demonstrate to the world that it controls its territory. "Rio de Janeiro has a safety problem. We are fully aware of this problem, it is one of the city's most historic problems," said the country's public safety director Jose Mariano Beltrame. "We proved to the Olympic Committee that we have plans and proposals for Rio de Janeiro."

None of this is to suggest that Brazil suffers from the sort of insecurity that wracks countless developing countries.  The country's economic indicators point to continuous growth, and statistics suggest that while crime endures as a serious threat, security improvements have been made throughout the country.  Murder rates in most Brazilian cities, previously some of the worst in the world, have steadily declined since Lula took charge in 2003. 

Still, this most recent violent episode will begin to tell the world a lot about the ways in which Brazil handles internal disturbances while it rises through the ranks of international power.  Other cities awarded Olympic hosting honors have used unsavory tactics to "clean up" their major cities in preparation for the games-China comes most immediately to mind, and the New Republic reports that "even liberal Vancouver is trying to force its homeless into shelters in advance of the 2010 Winter Games."  Sprinkle in Brazil's bloody tradition of state-sponsored violence against largely poor and vulnerable citizens in the name of security, and the country's more recent, out-of-control gang problem, and the chances for possible repression increase still further.  

Beyond the state, however, more potentially troubling concerns arise.  The first is one of timing. Are Rio's gangs ramping up the violence now that the spotlight is fixed on their city?  Can we expect more of the same, or worse, between now and when the Olympics draw close?  And what of the Olympics themselves?  Concerns seem firmly centered on protecting arriving athletes and the legions of expected tourists.  But what if the gangs leave the games untouched, and simply light Rio's favellas aflame instead? What then?