Handball player Ceballos to be sole flag bearer for PR at CAC Games
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
COPUR confirms decision to remove skeet shooter Bermúdez
By THE STAR STAFF
The members of the board of directors of the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR) determined with 27 votes in favor, eight against, and one abstention earlier this week that handball player Nathalys Ceballos of Río Grande will be the sole flag bearer for Puerto Rico during the opening ceremony of the 25th Central American and Caribbean Games Santo Domingo 2026.
The decision came on Wednesday in an extraordinary session in which the directors voted not to allow skeet shooter Luis “Tuto” Bermúdez González to be the male flag bearer for the delegation that will represent Puerto Rico at this summer’s CAC Games, which open on July 24.
Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR by its acronym in Spanish) President Sara Rosario Vélez presented a detailed chronology of events. Allegedly, the information reviewed by the board of directors this week was not available when Bermúdez González was selected.
In a written statement, Bermúdez González expressed that he is processing the institutional decision with sadness and pain, along with his wife, Ana Latorre Echeandía, a gold medalist at the 2014 Veracruz Games.
“My athletic mission lies in my results and in serving my fellow athletes,” the athlete stated. “Carrying our flag on the international stage has always been an honor that is evident in every training session and every competition. I am deeply grateful for every message and every gesture of support. Representing Puerto Rico is a privilege that I will always carry with pride.”
The COPUR’s decision prompted the island House of Representatives to approve Resolution 735, which demands an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the appointment and subsequent revocation of Bermúdez as flag bearer.
Reps. Jorge “Georgie” Navarro Suárez and Luis “Josean” Jiménez Torres, authors of the measure, asserted that the sequence of events raises public policy questions that warrant the attention of the Legislative Assembly.
The resolution compels the House Recreation and Sports Committee to investigate the rules, criteria, and background check mechanisms used by the COPUR to select its candidates and why it failed to detect in a timely manner the information that later led to Bermúdez’s removal.
Similarly, the measure’s authors raised the question of when COPUR became aware of the events of 2018, particularly given the public allegation that the institution may have known about them prior to Bermúdez’s nomination.
“Transparency in the decision-making of an organization that represents Puerto Rico internationally, and that receives and manages public funds, is a matter of public interest for Puerto Rico,” the resolution states.
According to information released by the news media, the events of 2018 are related to a request for a protection order filed by a woman who alleged that she had been subjected to lewd acts and unlawful detention by Bermúdez.
The press has reported that a San Juan court issued an ex parte protection order in December 2018, and the matter was subsequently heard by the Court of Appeals. However, the allegations were not adjudicated on their merits, and Bermúdez, who was selected as a flagbearer candidate on June 17, has publicly rejected the COPUR’s decision to revoke his nomination five days later.
Meanwhile, legislators are seeking to determine whether Bermúdez was afforded due process and the presumption of innocence to which every person is entitled.
“It is necessary to examine how COPUR reconciles both principles and whether it has clear, fair, and uniform protocols for addressing these types of situations,” according to the measure.