The Rio Olympics have been a “huge missed opportunity” to improve the lives of the country’s poorest, the overseas agency of the bishops’ conference has said.

With all eyes on Brazil for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cafod said the plight of Brazil’s indigenous peoples and the Amazon should be centre-stage.

Esther Gillingham, Cafod’s Brazil programme officer, said: “Indigenous peoples are being murdered, criminalised, threatened, evicted from their land, and their rights to health and education are systematically violated.