The Federated Sports Court of Guatemala annulled the 2021 election of former soccer player Jorge Rodas as president of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee (COG), an entity that is currently suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The decision of the Federated Sports Court similarly annulled all actions carried out by Rodas from 2021 to date, according to the opinion to which EFE had access this Tuesday, March 12.
The document issued by the court, the highest authority on electoral matters within Guatemalan federated sport, was signed on March 1 by the leaders of the entity Carlos González de la Cruz (president), Alejandra Álvarez Muñoz (vice president) and Jorge Ramírez Orellana (secretary).
The opinion specifies that The annulment aims to “reestablish the rights of Guatemalan athletes”, who have been suspended since 2022 from participating in international events. with the Guatemalan flag due to a suspension by the International Olympic Committee.
This suspension was born after the statutes of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee were partially removed in August 2022 by the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, in favor of Rodas, after a battle of legal resources between the former soccer player and the former candidate for the presidency of the sports entity Gerardo Aguirre.
The IOC granted the suspension in October 2022, considering that the action of the highest court of the Central American country was a “state intervention”, an action considered prohibited by the Olympic Charter that governs the sport.
Election without “validity”
The Federated Sports Court justified in its resolution of March 1 that The Rhodes election in 2021 is invalid and there is no legality in it.
Rodas, for his part, issued a statement this Tuesday in which he described the decision of the Federated Sports Court as “null and void.” He added that they will not comply with it as it is “illegal.”
Last February, the president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León, visited Switzerland, where he met with the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, to seek that his Nation’s athletes participate in the next Olympic Games “with all their rights.” “, according to the president.
However, and despite some meetings of the Guatemalan Government with different actors in recent weeks, there are no solutions in sight and the suspension remains by the International Olympic Committee. EFE
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