Castillo details abuses committed by 7 presidents of sports federations

Alfredo Castillo, chairman of Mexico's National Sports Commission (CONADE), accused seven presidents of sports federations of lacking transparency in the use of public funds, repressing their critics, giving priority to their personal interests, abusing their power and offering poor results.

The officials under scrutiny are Antonio Lozano (athletics), Ricardo Contreras (boxing), Effy Sánchez (archery), Alonso Pérez (baseball), Artemio Izquierdo (wrestling), Modesto Robledo (basketball) and Eduardo Villegas (fronton).

He added that 16 other federations are being investigated.

For example Mexico's Federation of Archery is accused of lack of accountability in the use of 5.8 million pesos (US$349,882). Moreover, some archers said that they had to pay for their own trips and sometimes attended international tournaments with no uniforms. René Serrano, a Mexican archer, said that when they traveled to Poland they paid for their own expenses with resources from other institutions.

Also, Ricardo Contreras, who has headed Mexico's Boxing Federation for 23 years, was criticized for obtaining one Olympic Medal only: Christian Bejarano's bronze in Sydney 2000, while Alonso Pérez, who heads the baseball federation since 1985, has not detailed the use given to 4.2 million pesos (US$253,290) in public resources.

The Mexican Baseball League and the Mexican Pacific League said that Contreras has disenrolled thousands of children for playing in leagues that he does not recognize. “His weapon has always been fear, threats, suspension or punishment,” the leagues said in a statement.

Israel Benítez, head of Veracruz Athletics Association, said that people who speak against Antonio Lozano “suffer reprisals and get their athletes get punished or blocked.”

In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL Nelson Vargas, former head of the CONADE, said that these irregularities are result of the absolute freedom given to them since the arrival of Carlos Hermosillo and the disappearance of the Mexican Sports Confederation (Codeme).

Ana Gabriela Guevara, now senator and Olympic medalist, said that she “lived firsthand the abuse of federations, that pushed me to retire” and agreed that they lack transparency.