Mérida, Yucatán — INAH, the agency that protects historic buildings, has allowed the city to go forward with demolishing an abandoned Centro mansion that partially collapsed into the street on Saturday.
Rubble from the house, on Calle 65, spilled into the street during a rainy-season deluge. The site has been cordoned off and the street is closed to traffic between Calle 42 and 44.
But thankfully, no one was injured in the collapse.
Six more houses are at risk of a similar fate, and should also be allowed to be torn down, says Mayor Mauricio Vila Dosal.
Abandoned buildings are not uncommon in the city, but INAH serves as a bureaucratic guardian of the city’s heritage.
Mérida’s 3.5-square-mile Centro Histórico is one of the largest in Latin America. A survey of the Centro counts about 20,000 properties of historic value.
But the mayor told reporters that public safety is a priority when seeking to demolish homes that have not been maintained by their owners.
The owner of the property, and what would appear in place of the old home, has not been revealed.
