Global Courant
Our sports teams do have a homeland, they do have a people, they do have love for Guatemala in their hearts; that is indubitable. Those who do not seem to have any of that are those individuals whose lack of sensitivity, empathy or good sense deprived them of representing the blue and white flag at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games. National athletes had to parade under the flag of Olympism. due to the blind ambition to retain untenable positions, the submission to obscure sponsors and the lack of axiological integrity to renounce such harmful claims.
The current Guatemalan Olympic Committee (COG) is Olympic only in name, due to the international suspension imposed six months ago by the International Olympic Committee. This directive was strictly imposed by an opinion of magistrates of the Constitutional Court clearly identified with the ruling party, issued in November 2022. They ignored any call, rejected the changes to the statutes requested by the international entity and the suspension of the country ensued. . Local athletes, many of them with a strong aspiration for medals, will compete without a flag, as if they were stateless.
Such unprecedented shame should be foisted on two competing lists since 2021: one of them stubborn in continuity and the other, captivated by the enormous constitutional economic resources of sport, but totally indolent in the face of the consequences of blocking changes required by international Olympism, simply because they did not suit him, given the implicit additional demands of cuentadanza.
The payrolls directed by Gerardo Aguirre and Jorge Rodas got involved in a pulse of egos, connections and greed. Both used speeches in defense of autonomy, to make the execution of funds transparent and to improve the performance of athletes, but they are verbal shells, fallacies and pretexts: the best proof is that they have not resigned in order to open a new electoral process in which both refrain from participating and developed according to the statutes required by the IOC.
The alleged unconstitutionality declared by the CC is just a pretext to protect the payroll sponsored by the ruling party. Symptomatic: until now there is not a single pronouncement of the imposed directive, neither from the CC, nor from the Executive nor from the Congress in favor of a solution that returns Guatemala to the Olympic cycle. The calls of the athletes, those directly harmed by this legaloid tome, were ignored. It is worth questioning what kind of constitutionality a CC defends that snatches opportunities to represent their nation from Guatemalan athletes of all disciplines, ages and categories.
If the informal defense of a clique implies a negative impact on a huge group of young people, what legitimacy is being talked about? With the electoral process comes an undoubted change of polarities that will impact the political footholds of the Guatemalan Committee and will make the relegated election imminent. The national sport needs a reinvention to promote talents, extend attention to the athletes of the province and make the execution of funds transparent. May the parade without a national flag of the Guatemalan teams in the Central American and Caribbean Games be remembered as the unhealthy fruit of unworthy biases and favor-peddling.
