So far, the ASO - organizers of the Dakar rally - which has not yet released a decision on where to take place in 2011 edition of the Dakar. This delay is due to be multiple factors, but recently a succession of events will eventually have complicated the life of Etienne Lavigne and his companions.
For some time it was public that there were two hypotheses too strong for the Dakar 2011 - or a return to Africa, through Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, or stay in Argentina and Chile. But as noted above the recent events should be very confused in this equation. The "South America" has to mourn the tragic earthquake in Chile, which has claimed hundreds of lives and left the country in chaos, with widespread destruction of public and private property, infrastructure etc.. This country now faces a lengthy and costly reconstruction process, so it is certainly easier to ensure the 7 million of Euros that the ASO required to take the exam on the same site in 2010. According to the information we have, it also insisted that amount, up to 1 million more than in 2010, it seeks to promote more and better, and to retrieve the number of participants in 2009 - at around 600, and this year was - only by 400. The most inglorious is that Chile has always been more willing to move than Argentina, and now is who is worse off.
In Africa, Libya is the problem. After a period of remission and improvement in relations between Western Europe and Tripoli, here comes a new period of tension. This amounts to a measure Switzerland, which forbade the construction of Muslim minarets within its territory. As a retaliation for the attitude of the Swiss, Muammar Gaddafi, head of the Libyan Government, declared holy war against the United States, and even took the administrative action to suspend issuing visas to foreigners originating in the Schengen Area, Switzerland where it is located. There is already evidence including one damaged by this attitude, which is the Libya Rally, whose European participants eagerly await the Port of Marseille for a lull in diplomatic relations in order to travel and compete in the evento.Não yet known to what extent this will affect the Dakar, but simply will not qualify. If the hypothesis of the Dakar to take place in the trio of African countries had been weakened even before this event, so this time should be close to the exclusion of the group of possibilities.
With all this, the ASO should not be living easy days, because the 3 alternatives contain problems. In Chile, the natural disaster that destroyed part of the country, Libya and the diplomatic war of religion, and thirdly, to returning to the traditional route towards Dakar Senegal can not be used due to groups of armed bandits, who the beginning of this year damaged the Budapest Bamako Rally, and are a constant threat to the safety of people (and assets) that are part of the caravan rally.
Hopefully it for news, which will be released soon on the fate of the Dakar 2011.
Source: Todo Terreno
