Guadalajara city councilors have rejected a reduced 500-million-peso credit for the 2011 Pan American Games athletes’ village, leaving the project without funding and the future of the games on a knife-edge.
Earlier in the week Guadalajara Mayor Alfonso Petersen accepted that the level of debt city hall could take on to build the village in a rundown area of downtown Guadalajara must be reduced from one billion to half a billion pesos.
Thursday’s second vote on the issue split along party lines, with the ruling National Action Party (PAN) unable to garner the two-thirds majority needed to approve the loan.
Petersen criticized opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) councilors for voting against the loan. He called the vote “an act of absolute irresponsibility because they didn’t even revise the information like they should have.”
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Sources close to incoming PRI mayor Jorge Aristoteles Sandoval (he takes office January 1, 2010) told local daily Mural that an agreement is already in place with the supposedly non-partisan Pan American Games Sporting Organization (Odepa) for the village to be built in one of three alternative sites: the Puerta Guadalajara, Parque Avila Camacho or the former Club Guadalajara. None are in the center of the city.
Petersen, who has staked his political future on this ambitious urban regeneration project, indicated that he would meet up with the president of Odepa to provide guarantees that the games can take place in Guadalajara. He said he would also “knock on as many doors as possible” to ensure the development project in the city’s Morelos Park goes ahead.
The start date for construction of the athlete’s village is set for October 30 but that seems optimistic given the current situation.
Jalisco governor Emilio Gonzalez last week warned Guadalajara could lose the games if the issue isn't resolved swiftly (see story here).
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