2024-01-03 22:29:17
05:10 PM
Panam Sports, the entity that organizes the Pan American Games, announced this Wednesday that it withdrew the venue of the 2027 competition to Barranquilla, due to “non-compliance” by the Colombian city.
“The resolution has been taken following the countless breaches of the current contract,” Panam Sports said in a statement.
According to media reports, the Colombian government did not allocate approximately $4 million to Panam Sports last year, as established in the agreement.
The organization did not inform which city will host the Games instead of Barranquilla, although according to the press one of those interested in hosting them is Asunción.
The holding of the competition was a mystery, since President Gustavo Petro was not convinced that the city would host the most important event in the American Olympic cycle. The president even proposed that it be held in different cities and towns in the Colombian Caribbean.
At the Pan American Games in Santiago, held between October and November, Gustavo Petro was absent from the presentation of the flags by Chile. The president of Panam Sports, Neven Ilic, had invited him to receive “from the hands” of the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, but that did not happen.
Panam Sports only detailed this Wednesday that on October 19 it received a letter from Colombia requesting an “extension of the deadlines to be able to comply with the contract.” However, given the “null” response from the organizing country, it was decided to permanently remove the venue.
At odds with the right-wing political clan that has governed Barranquilla since January 1, the president has not spoken. Neither does the Minister of Sports, Astrid Rodríguez.
This Wednesday, opposition congressmen asked Petro to support sport and make the organization of the Pan American Games possible, although Panam Sports assured that it was an “unwavering” decision.
Background
Colombia has a long history of giving up or losing the organization of major sporting events.
In the last century, the country declined to host the 1986 World Cup (finally held in Mexico) to invest the money in public works.
In 2021, the then right-wing president Iván Duque resigned from hosting the Copa América supposedly due to the disastrous effects of the pandemic on the economy, although that government was the target of a social outbreak with protests in the streets and dozens of deaths.
Between August and September 2024, the main stadiums in Colombia will host the Women’s U-20 World Cup.
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