Olympic Committee Continues in Turmoil
by Rod Hughes
The saga of the National Olympic Committee is a humorous microcosm of the struggle for power, no matter how limited and petty that power is, or would be if both warring factions were not taking the situation so seriously. To recapitulate this microdrama, the board of directors voted out president Jorge Nery Carvahal and replaced him. But Carvajal refused to step down.
Then, Wednesday, in a Committee goveral assembly, both sides appeared poised on the edge of an agreement to end the revolution peacefully. That was when things got sticky and Carvajal kicked everyone out on his own initiative and dissolved the meeting.
The original issues had to do with Carvajal’s highhandedness in naming his officials and issues about use of funds. The opposition, led by Henry Nunez, then replaced Carvajal but the latter was not budging from his seat.
Wednesday, parties appeared to have agreed on the replacement of the powers that be but hit a snag: Carvajal said he would not step down until after the Pekin Olympics in August. This did not sit well with the opposition at all, who wanted him gone yesterday. It took only an hour during a general assembly recess to reach an utter impass in negotiations.
When the assembly reconvened, it was to hear Carvajal, who refused to let anyone else speak, dismissing the assemblage. Although his representative, Jorge Yamuni, had been negotiating the change of power with Nunez, Carvajal denied to the press that he had ever agreed to step down. The federations of the various Olympic sports reacted with total disgust and viewed the whole thing as a pretext to deny them the change of hierarchy they wanted.
Now the decision rests in the hands of the PanAmerican Sports Organization, which sent four representatives to the truncated assembly session.