Néstor Galarraga - The Power of the Warrior

It is for you a wise decision to judge which of the two organizations adjusts to the real Olympic spirit and to the original Taekwon-Do morality. Thus, before concluding, I urge you, in the name of the Tae Kwon Do family around the world, to arrive to a legitimate conclusion based on the principle of the sporting spirit and the genuine intention of humanity to protect the weak and to avoid resentment.

Thank you very much.

Choi Hong Hi

I.T.F. President

It was, indeed, a heartfelt letter with beautiful metaphors but, nonetheless, ineffective; on July of 1980, WT was recognized by the IOC.

The first WT Taekwon-Do entity established in Argentina was created and directed by Ambassador Edgard Pérez Colman, who was acting as Argentine ambassador in South Korea and left the embassy to work for WT in our country —something quite striking!—, using the political power granted by the military government in power. On July 20 of 1978, the Argentine Taekwondo Association (AAT-WT) and, two years later, pursuant to Resolution 1381 of the Provincial Direction of Legal Entities of the Province of Buenos Aires, it obtained its legal status on November 7 of 1980. Three years later, during the Constitutional Assembly of December 16 of 1983, an amendment to the name and structure was achieved, giving birth to the current “Argentine Taekwondo Confederation” (CAT, in Spanish), as the only and exclusive institution governing Taekwon-Do in the Argentine Republic (this resolution made no ITF-WT distinction). From that moment onwards, WT increased its efforts and dedicated itself to systematically persecute ITF.

Pérez Colman led the entity until 1991 and it is important to mention that, from his executive position, he kept a close watch on all the movements of the institution, being honorary president up until his last days (he died on March 11 of 2016). He was succeeded by Rogelio Lomazzo, from 1992 until 1998, then, Héctor Olivero took over, from 1998 until 1999, and Julio Cassanello, from 1999 until 2005, who had to leave office because he was elected president of the Argentine Olympic Committee. Julio Casanello, a soccer man, former mayor of Quilmes district during the military reorganization process. Why was he hiding behind Taekwon-Do? The answer is quite simple: the CAT was a political instrument that he could run at will and after 28 years managing the Argentine Olympic Committee, Coronel Antonio Rodríguez needed a successor and that man was Casanello, a man from the military reorganization process, from its kidney, figuratively speaking. Surprisingly, the president of the Taekwon-Do Argentine Confederation (the last sport to reach Olympic status), Julio Casanello, became the head of the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA, in Spanish), by winning with 26 votes a run-off against the second candidate, Mario Moccia, with 25 votes.

The CAT brought together a few Taekwon-Do entities and a lot of political power, collected during the military reorganization process. Just remember that the Argentine ambassador in South Korea ended up working for Koreans in Argentina. Said entity has quite a violent history that goes from leaders and controllers being threatened to death, books of records being stolen, meetings with the management committee where certain members were armed and other meetings that ended up with fist fights and leaders being sent to the intensive care unit of a hospital due to the severity of their injuries2; justice intervened, much too late, as it happens in the best Hollywood movies, but it did. Although, strangely, after such an institutional scandal, on September of 2008, an old character known mainly by the old taekwondoins from both styles reappeared: the former ambassador Edgard Pérez Colman3.

2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWfRHCnnJ8

3http://taekwondo-wtf-argentina.blogspot.com.ar/2008/09/la-cat-intervenida-argentina.html

In the meantime, luckily, the former mayor of Quilmes district in times of the military dictatorship, Julio Casanello, had to leave his hideout (the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were the ones playing hide and seek and spotted him) and he was forced to present his “unwavering” resignation to the COA presidency. He left the Olympic Committee saying it was all a political and media operation staged against him. He knew he had to escape; otherwise he would end up in jail. How a man with such undemocratic precedents managed to lead the Argentine Taekwon-Do Confederation in the first place and, then, the Argentine Olympic Committee is inexplicable. But this is one of the clearest examples showing that the CAT was purely a political instrument.

Setting aside the affairs pertaining to the CAT exclusively, the fundamental objective of the WT throughout its history was to haunt ITF Taekwon-Do instructors, removing us from the places of education, sending letters or making calls in the name of the Armed Forces claiming that the places where we taught were seedbeds of extremists and that our activities were financing subversion in Central America, and that their recommendation was to shut our activity down. This completely insane nonsense could have cost us our lives. The common conduct of the time was to bust any venture stemming from ITF by systematically using political power to prevent us from connecting with the institutions that regulated the sport at a national level. I personally organized the most important ITF Taekwon-Do events in Argentina throughout history, including the epic ´99 World Championship, the 11th world championship in the Argentine Republic. It was the biggest ITF event in history and it took place in three locations simultaneously: the emblematic Luna Park in the city of Buenos Aires, the Club Atlético Provincial in the city of Rosario and the Polideportivo in the city of Mar del Plata. Three exceptional stadiums where 911 athletes and 50 teams from 75 countries competed, accompanied by more than 4000 people that came from other countries to witness the event which, over the course of 11 days, added up 50.000 spectators and it was televised for more than 100 countries through the network Fox Sports International.

Every time I went to the National Secretariat of Sports seeking for any kind of assistance, I hit a wall, always the same story; they all said the same thing: «the National Secretariat of Sports supports solely the federated sport…». I always remember one time, during the organization of the ´99 World Championship, after running around in circles from one state entity to the other, I ended up in the National Secretariat of Sports asking for help and, as a favor, the connected me with the president of the Argentine WT Taekwondo Confederation, who told me to go ahead with the world championship but silently. Then, I asked if they could not give me a hand, many countries where coming, I said, more than 70; I told him that I was overwhelmed by the organization of the event and that I knew they had a lot of structural elements that meant no money to them, but were gold to me. He said no, absolutely no way, we were not part of the federated sport. Then, with certain sarcasm, I said we needed a national flag, I asked if they could provide me with one Argentine flag and he replied: «not even a flag and don´t try to be smart…».

I also met with Daniel Scioli a few years later, for a couple of times, thinking things would be different; this time the reason was the 2002 World Youth Championship, and he was the Tourism and Sports Director, yet the answer was the same… «There is nothing we can do; the National Secretariat of Sports supports only the federated sport…». A terribly stupid answer folks repeated over and over again, but they did not have the slightest idea about what they are saying, because the purpose of the National Secretariat of Sports is not to support the federated sports exclusively. That is just an arrangement, a marriage, so to speak, between the NSS and the COA. Nonetheless, that is not the most astonishing thing; I think the most amazing fact about this situation is to find people holding state positions and speaking on behalf of sports, having no clue about what they are speaking of; they did not even know the sports laws.