Civic citizens, grandparents and uncles of many payanes today, contributed from their own money, in order to make a stadium a reality for the city and the department.
By Aura Isabel Olano Correa
In the 1950s, Payanes Ciro López Rivera set out to encourage a group of fellow citizens to acquire land and build a stadium for Popayán, in addition to allocating another part to recreation and sports practice.
Don Ciro López, as he was known, with his efficient management achieved a great turnout and many Payanese made important contributions to carry out this great city project. The stadium was inaugurated on July 8, 1951 with a historic soccer match between the Cauca National Team and the capital team Millonarios, which had a massive attendance and significant box office receipts.
As manager and coordinator of the project, it was agreed that the stadium would be named after him: Ciro López, in his honor. The land was left with real estate registration and two cadastral certificates, it has always been like this, because the railroad divided the two properties, but in essence it is one.
Ciro López Stadium, sold to the Caucana Football League by the Municipality of Popayán, in 2023
By means of Ordinance 12 of 1958, the department, being governor of Cauca, Víctor Mosquera Chaux, gave that property on assignment to the Caucana Football League, so that it could develop recreational and sports activities. It was specified that the use of said property, to which many Payanese of the time contributed, was recreational and sports, with no other destination or use.
According to the former director of Indeportes Cauca, Miguel Eduardo Muñoz Guevara, the department of Cauca transferred the use, not the ownership of the property.
What has happened in recent history?
The president of the Caucana Football League, Fredy Gómez Canencio, decided, given what had been happening regarding the debt for taxes and public services, that the appropriate thing to do was to sell the property to pay and clear the obligations.
For its part, the Municipal Administration of Popayán initiated several actions, among others, the declaration of public utility of the property as such, which made it possible for the Municipality to acquire it at differential prices based on commercial appraisals.
The land was left with real estate registration and two cadastral certificates, because the railroad divided the two properties, but in essence it is one.
In short, the municipality of Popayán as a creditor, together with the Aqueduct and Electric Power companies, owed the Caucana Football League a consolidated debt of around $4.5 billion, between property and public services. The Administration of Juan Carlos López Castrillón, carried out an expropriation process only of the Ciro López stadium property, but lifted the condition of public utility of the Health Park lot, when it is an integral part of the total property where the stadium is built, for which resolved what was one, and healed what was the other, being two completely different cadastral records, when what the then mayor López Castrillón should have done was expropriate the two properties and clean up the lot for the benefit of the citizens and Popayán. Consequently, the municipality became the owner of the property where the Ciro López stadium is located, and the Football League as owner, now with the property cleaned up, of La Salud Park.
In a strange way, the president of the Caucana Football League, Fredy Orlando Gómez Canencio, representing that entity, on November 16, 2023, made a deal to buy and sell the La Salud park, to individuals Melkin Riascos Anchico and María Andrade Bolaños, in the Sole Notary Office of the Círculo de Candelaria, Valle del Cauca, by amount of $5,500,000,000. It is believed that this value is lower than the real one. There is no clarity regarding the valuation of the lot, however, in public deed No. 2976 of the Candelaria notary, said appraisal appears at $12,296,746,000
The property includes several buildings, including a parking lot, the temple of the Virgin of Perpetual Help, the Children’s Home, the Grandfather’s House, the Mercedes Pardo de Simmonds school (which apparently has a departmental ordinance), the vaccination center the Municipal Health Secretariat and the Police CAI. There are also premises and synthetic fields that the Caucana Football League has leased to individuals.
Emplacement Edict of the Community Action Board of the Los Hoyos neighborhood.
What effect can that sale have?
According to experts consulted by this portal, this alienation has several effects, which will be the subject of investigation by the civil, contentious-administrative, and even criminal jurisdictions, which will analyze what the responsibilities are and what the facts or conduct that were displayed, because that The property has the caveat that if it was sold, if it was transferred or if the League was liquidated, it would return to the hands of the Department of Cauca.but the League ignored that condition and the Candelaria notary did not notice this reservation in the deeds and other documents provided for the sale of a property.
In this regard, it has emerged that the department of Cauca, the Departmental Assembly, the Mayor’s Office of Popayán and the Council of Popayán, agree to file a lawsuit to seek the nullity of the business and the recovery of the property as a public good and give it the true recreational and sporting use that has been established from the beginning.
Los hoyos children’s garden, on the grounds of the Parque de la Salud.
Shared responsibility
What has arisen is a problem for the Caucana Football League, as seller, which will have to resolve it with the buyers. Surely, this alienation can lead to investigations of all kinds, an expert on this matter told the newspaper La Campana. He added that negotiations like this are totally contrary to citizen interests and the general interest, which are above negotiations between individuals who exercise public functions, since what the League does is, precisely, a public function that has to to do with sports, recreation and that these types of actions disdain its board of directors and its president, and also call into question the qualities of the people who make it up. “Everyone would be responsible, not only the president and the board of directors, but also the clubs that make up this organization that have remained silent and that in some way end up validating the actions of those who preside over the League,” said the source interviewed.
For the former director of Indeportes Cauca, Miguel Eduardo Muñoz Guevara, regarding the expropriation carried out by the Mayor’s Office and the sale of the land by the Football League, there is a lot of fabric to be cut and in the future there will be problems with these two businesses.
Mercedes Pardo de Simmonds School, in the same area of land.
It is a department asset.
Apparently, the Caucana Football League appropriated property that does not belong to it, its owner is the department of Cauca. According to lawyers consulted, this territorial entity must carry out the pertinent actions to recover and reorient the use of that property and reactivate the La Salud park sector for the benefit of sports and recreation, not only in Popayán, but also in Cauca.
“I maintain that the League is not the owner of the property, legally a transfer was made to it for use and enjoyment, it could not sell it. The owner of the land is the department of Cauca and it is up to them to vindicate their right,” said Muñoz Guevara.
Synthetic fields next to the stadium.
The condition of the property was lifted
In essence, what the López Castrillón administration did was to lift the condition of a public interest asset for public use on the La Salud park property, when it did not have to do so, it had to let that situation be resolved by the incoming Government. since the municipality of Popayán had three more years to resolve the case. Due to the decisions made by former mayor López Castrillón, in addition to the problem created, Popayán has one less space for sports and recreation.
What will happen to the money paid by the municipality to the League?
That is another situation that the department of Cauca and the municipality of Popayán will have to resolve. Who received the money and what is its destination? What use is it going to be given? What is the benefit for Caucano soccer players and for sport in general? With those $8.3 billion that the municipality paid to the League, will it build a sports center? There are several questions that are in the air. Likewise, why did the department give a property that was acquired in the 1950s with donations from many Payanese people, which can be considered an inheritance, to the Caucana Football League, to manage it, and not to the municipality of Popayán?
Parque de La Salud and commercial establishments
This League, whose members are unknown, would receive for this legacy, left to Popayán by its elders, $8.3 billion that the municipality paid for the “sale of the Ciro López stadium” and $5.5 billion for the “sale that was made the La Salud Park League” to individuals. However, the legal transaction has not been completed, since apparently, the registration of the deed has not been carried out, which must be done before the Public Instruments Registry Office of Popayán.
The only thing that emerged from the stadium was that its infrastructure was in a terrible state, deteriorated, that the bathrooms were a disgrace, that is, that the now rich “heirs” did not invest in their maintenance.
La Salud park courts
“For many years Indeportes Cauca maintained the stadium, including payments for security, water, energy, maintenance of the grass, the athletics track, construction of new stands, etc. The investment made by the Football League was minimal and it profited from the rentals,” the former director of Indeportes Cauca, Miguel Eduardo Muñoz, told La Campana.
It is worth asking if, for more than half a century, the directors of the Football League were accountable for this public good. Why didn’t they pay taxes and public services? What money did they manage? The people of Paya deserve to know that history, and, of course, the competent authorities.