Madonna's new gym overcomes Mexican bureaucracy

Madonna's new gym in Mexico City was finally given a permit to operate, a local official said Wednesday, two days after the US pop diva inaugurated the luxury workout space.

The Hard Candy gym had been prevented from opening because it lacked permits for land use and for its parking lot, Demetrio Sodi, head of the Miguel Hidalgo borough of Mexico City, and uncle of Latin pop diva Thalia, told AFP.

"It was authorized during the day (Wednesday)," he later told Radio Formula.

"People usually check they have all the permits before inaugurating something," Sodi said.

No one answered telephone calls AFP made to the gym and its public relations company on Wednesday.

Madonna was in Mexico City on Monday to open the first Hard Candy Fitness club, part of a global chain she and her business partners are unveiling around the world.

Sodi said the gym was granted a special permit for the inauguration, in a country renowned for its cumbersome bureaucracy.

The gym is set in a lavish, three-story, 3,000 square meter (32,000 square foot) space in the Mexican capital's exclusive Lomas Altas neighborhood.