VISITORS to Rio de Janeiro’s main airport were greeted Monday with a troubling banner: “Welcome to Hell.”

    It was there for all to see, held aloft by first responders protesting late paychecks and poor working conditions.

    “Police and firefighters don’t get paid,” it continued. “Whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro won’t be safe.”

    Concerns about the Zika virus, the pollution in the local bay and the city’s rush to finish construction may all be superseded by a developing worry ahead of the Olympic Games: Rio’s ability to handle crime and crisis.

    One spokesman for the Rio police force declared, “We are in a meltdown.”

    “We have a desperate government and agencies,” one Brazil-based counterterrorism agent wrote in a message to Yahoo Sports. “The danger has never been so close.”

    Monday’s airport protest comes on the heels of a declaration last week by the state government of Rio that the area is in a “state of calamity,” which could bring about a “total collapse in public security, health, education, transport and environmental management.”

    Brazil is facing dire threats from a collapsing economy, and the city of Rio has seen an uptick in urban violence since the World Cup was held in 2014. The backdrop is the ongoing impeachment process of Brazil President Dilma Rousseff.

    Earlier this month, Rio’s largest public hospital was attacked by more than 20 gunmen, leaving one person dead and two injured. The group wore masks and carried assault rifles, and was able to free a drug kingpin, according to one local report. The hospital is one of five designated for the treatment of tourists during the Games.(SD-Agencies)