Santiago de Chile, March 25 (RHC)-- The government of Chile is out of date with the rules established by the World Anti-Doping Code, which could cause difficulties in the celebration of the Pan American Games of Santiago 2023.
A group of auditors visited the country last January with the aim of verifying compliance with international rules, particularly from the legal point of view.
In March, during the last days of the administration of the now former Minister of Sport Alexandra Benado, a report was received from the experts of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which revealed problems in 43 of the 242 aspects reviewed.
Of the difficulties, 15 were rated as critical, another 20 as high priority and the rest belonged to the category of general issues.
The case is that Chile signed and ratified the International Convention Against Doping in 2011, during the first government of Sebastián Piñera, but did not take any steps to adapt the sports law issued in 2001 to the new regulations on the matter.
For example, WADA requires that the bodies in charge of controlling the use of prohibited substances in competitions be totally independent from any governmental instance, and here that entity is part of the structure of the Ministry of Sport.
This and other legal and administrative issues must be resolved within 90 days, which began on March 7. If this is not done, the country may suffer severe sanctions, including the prohibition of its athletes to participate in international events, including this year's Pan American and Parapan American Games. In the best case scenario, Chilean athletes could compete, but under a neutral flag and uniform.
The process to modify the aforementioned legislation is cumbersome, because first the current head of sport, Jaime Pizarro, must send the proposal to the executive branch and when it responds, it must be sent to WADA headquarters in Canada for review.
Only after these formalities are completed can the bill be sent to the national congress for discussion and approval in both chambers and subsequent enactment by the executive.
