From non-compliance to the search for culprits: Barranquilla's path to losing the Pan American Games

Last January 3, when the remnants of the turmoil of the recently completed 2023 were still felt, the first political hurricane of the year was unleashed: the Pan American Sports Organization (Panam Sports) announced that Barranquilla would lose the venue of the 2027 Pan American Games due to a failure to make the payments due. That news started two races: the first, to try to recover the headquarters; the second, to find the culprit of a loss that began to be clothed in international shame. The first ended this Thursday, when Panam Sports confirmed that Asunción (Paraguay) and Lima (Peru) are the only candidate cities to host the competitions. The other, that of responsibilities, still continues.

That third day of the year, the Organization reported in a statement that Barranquilla had failed to fulfill its commitments. He narrated that, in October 2022, the city requested an extension to comply with the payment of eight million dollars to ensure its status as the venue for the fairs. Panam Sports accepted the request and new deadlines were established: four million had to be paid on December 30 and another four on January 30, 2024. However, given the “no response” on the first date, Panam Sports took the “ “unwavering decision” to withdraw from the largest city in the Colombian Caribbean the right that it had won in 2021 and had been ratified in 2022. The National Government, through the Ministry of Sports, was in charge of payments.

The first criticisms were tempered by an unusual willingness to cooperate between President Gustavo Petro and two of his political rivals in the Caribbean: the mayor of Barranquilla, Álex Char; and the governor of Atlántico, Eduardo Verano de la Rosa. The three met at the Casa de Nariño, in Bogotá, recognized their joint desire to work to recover the Games and were willing to demonstrate that Colombia was capable of hosting the most important sports competitions in the region once the obstacle of non-payment had been overcome. , whose culprits did not seem urgent to find.

President Petro was fully involved. Although it seemed too late, on January 5 he sent a letter to Neven Ilic, president of Panam Sports, which in a section says: “I am writing to you to express our will and commitment to overcome any obstacle that has led to the decision.” announced in the statement. “Our country is up to the task of organizing and hosting the great continental sports festival of 2027.” The president, with the promise of having the eight million dollars ready to be “drawn at any time,” announced that he would take advantage of the trip he had scheduled to Antarctica to meet with Ilic in Santiago de Chile, headquarters of the office of the sports leader On January 28, it was learned that Petro was canceling the trip to stay in the country attending to emergencies due to the forest fires.

At the same time, the Minister of Sports, Astrid Rodríguez, faced her bad hour. Although she had initially assured that the payment was not made due to lack of resources, W Radio revealed that she herself had signed an official document granting that the money was ready. The text, dated November 7, says: “Minister Astrid Bibiana Rodríguez reiterates that the Ministry has the eight million dollars, which must be transferred in December, and proposes the Colombian Olympic Committee (COC), as a temporary operator for to be able to rotate resources.” Senator David Luna, of the opposition Radical Change party, filed a motion of censure against the minister that could force her to leave office. The process has not yet begun, as legislative sessions begin on February 16.

Former President Iván Duque entered the discussion to defend his management and discharge all responsibility for the loss of the Games in the Petro Government. The former president even recalled a very popular idea towards the end of his four-year term: that of having a Formula 1 race in the same city. Beyond the noise and political gain that an announcement of such magnitude meant, the idea soon deflated as unviable in a city with an obvious infrastructure limitation that includes the airport, essential for a competition of that category, and which has been almost a decade waiting for its modernization works to finish. Even so, Duque also blamed the supposed loss of the car race (which was not lost, because it was never actually won) on the current Administration: “These last two [la Fórmula 1 y los Panamericanos] “They were lost due to the sabotage and negligence of the current Government,” he wrote on social networks.

This Thursday, after learning of the definitive revocation of the headquarters in Barranquilla, Petro released a letter from Ilic in which he listed the times that Panam Sports tried to communicate with the Colombian authorities to ask them to fulfill the contract, signed in May 2021. The first communication dates back to January 2022 – even with Duque as president. The next, in September 2022 – with Petro newly in office – and the third on October 20 of the same year. He also mentions that, in August 2023, the Organization set the following October 29 as a deadline for Colombia to comply with the contract, under penalty of having its headquarters withdrawn. The president argued that Panam Sports revoked the headquarters in Barranquilla for supposedly having a commitment to Asunción. “This unilateral decision and before the agreed maximum date [el 30 de enero] It seems like a mockery of Colombia to me,” Petro concludes.

The president of the Colombian Olympic Committee, Ciro Solano, stated that the loss of the venue was the result of the “fear or negligence” of the Government, because the money was there. Although in his opinion Colombia's non-compliance was “total”, he acknowledged that Minister Rodríguez revived the Games, after several months of few signs. “The minister was very attentive and she was the one who revived the Games, because they were in the freezer for almost nine months waiting for confirmation from the National Government. [La exministra del Deporte] María Isabel Urrutia did not pay attention to the issue and when Rodríguez arrived we began to talk,” she said on W Radio on January 22. This Friday, in a press conference, Solano stated that with the revocation of the headquarters “credibility is lost” and, in monetary terms, more than two million dollars are in danger.

A month later, and already empty-handed, the signs continue in all directions. Even Barranquilla's Armando Benedetti, former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela and former Petro bishop, who had opted for silence after his departure from the diplomatic corps, joined them: “Pan Americans… Ignorance, improvisation and lack of experience of the people who surround the president. Poor Barranquilla! “He declared. The Petrist representative Agmeth Escaf, from Barranquilla and close to the Char house, also spoke, who, although he clarified that he remains “firm” with President Petro, said that “the headquarters was lost because the Government failed to comply.”

Jaime Pumarejo, who governed Barranquilla while it was still hosting the Pan American Games, opted for a more resigned tone. “Sad news. He will leave many lessons for the country. Hopefully this is a turning point and we dare to dream. “Barranquilla and Colombia deserve more and are up for great things,” he wrote on social networks. His words well represent the feeling of defeat for the Games that were already lost, but that left a bitter taste and one more ingredient for the climate of political confrontation every day.

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