Sports Minister Francisco Camacho assured that the Dominican athletes will have a place “as they deserve, they will be there as kings”, when next February they begin to spend the night in the renovated Olympic Village on the Las Américas highway.
The historic town that housed part of the athletes who participated in the XII Central American and Caribbean Games Santo Domingo 1974, has received a 16 million vaccine and it seems in many of its areas that it was lifted “yesterday”.
Deputy Minister Jhonny Peña, in charge of the Engineering Department, stated that the Villa de Las Américas has undergone a drastic transformation that will benefit the athletes, since three buildings were intervened in the first stage, with an investment of 9 million pesos, whose bathrooms were rebuilt, sanitary pipes, doors and windows, as well as electrical installations, were completely changed.
Each building has five levels, a total of 30 apartments in which 240 athletes could cohabit comfortably.
The Ministry of Sports announced earlier this week the progress of these works after a crisis exploded in the ‘Olympic Hostel’ of the La Fe expansion, withdrawing regular and executive personnel from the joint administration that it held with the Dominican Olympic Committee (COD) . In addition, Miderec withdrew an aid of 3.0 million pesos that it contributed monthly to the Shelter during the country was “closed” in times of pandemic.
The top leadership of MIDEREC and the COD held a meeting on Tuesday at the ministry’s headquarters, but no agreement has been announced.
Aside from the “Olympic litigation” for controlling supposed estates in the upcoming COD elections; there was a strong rejection that the administration of the Albergue del ensanche La Fe charged the delegations of Dominicans and foreigners 40 dollars per “head” (equivalent to RD$2,240.00), an amount unaffordable by the Dominican federations.
Minister Camacho was in the town on Monday and in his opinion everything is in order and what he saw was to his liking.
“Already the first three buildings are in the final phase in the physical part, with total remodeling; the engineer Joel Santos showed us the entire installation, in February the first three could be delivered… The two remaining buildings have already been put out to tender, this stage is in charge of the company ‘Sendero Alto’ and work has already begun to deliver them by the end of the of March. That part will cost 7 million to complete the investment of 16 million in total,” Vice Minister Peña said.
The former president of the COD, Dr. José Joaquín Puello also revealed to LISTÍN DIARIO that Dominican athletes should not pay a penny at the Shelter because that legacy belongs to them, of which he was the ideologue.
“Everything will be very different from what was before because it has been a radical change and of course, the athletes will not have to pay a chele at all, nothing to be there!”, he concluded.
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