The Curious Case of Castro vs Benavides (Patreon)

As you may remember, last summer there were a couple of black card incidents that attracted a lot of attention. Firstly there was Curtis McDowald's barrier kick, then the excessive celebration by the Mexican Foil Coach, but there was another black card incident that went pretty under the radar.

At the 2023 Panamerican Championships, following the bronze medal match between Mexico and Chile in the Women's Team Foil (final event of the championships), Venezuelan referee Jose Benavides issued a black card to Mexican, Jorge Castro.

If you watch the streams from the event you can see no evidence of any disturbance on or around the piste. Here is a video of the incident, which shows Castro give a fairly tame cheer in celebration of the Mexican victory followed by Benavides approaching, showing the card then swiftly leaving.

So who is Jorge Castro?

Castro is/was(?) the "President" of the Mexican Fencing Federation. Mexican fencing has been in turmoil under Castro, the Paola Pliego affair being one example as well as fencer/referee collusion.

A 2017 article writes that according to secret recordings, Castro engineered his election victory.

In 2018 the Central American and Caribbean Fencing Confederation declared Castro 'persona non grata'.

In December 2023 the FIE wrote a letter stating that it recognises neither the Mexican Fencing Federation, no Jorge Castro.

The Mexican Olympic Committee does not recognise this decision

A transition committee was established to create a new federation led by Ana Irene Delgado and Vitaly Logvin.

Who is José Benavides?

Benavides is an FIE referee from Venezuela, qualified in three weapons and has been the Uzbekistan national epee coach.

Castro appealed the black card and won. The report of the tribunal can be read here.

The black card was expunged from the record and Benavides has been banned from serving in any official capacity at any FIE event this season. He will also be made to pay expenses to Castro.

I found this part of the document to be quite interesting:

13. Benavides’ final offering is a letter claiming to be from William Genet Barberenaas general secretary of the so-called Central American and Caribbean Fencing Confederation. Mr. Barberena claims no knowledge, firsthand or hearsay, about the events at the Pan AmericanChampionships, and instead offers only evidence of Castro’s character. Such evidence isinflammatory but has little actual probative value. Here, there are special reasons for discountingit. Castro has presented credible evidence that Mr. Barberena was convicted of a crime involvingfraud and that he may even be incarcerated. Even aside from that, the Central American andCaribbean Fencing Confederation has no standing in the FIE. Its supposed declaration of Castroas “persona non grata, of all activities related to fencing in the Central American and Caribbeanregion” cannot compel the FIE to recognize or honor that decision. Further, the “Minutes ofElective Congress of the Central American and Caribbean Fencing Confederation” (if such anorganization exists) indicate that its denunciation of Castro was done without a hearing or anyprocedural rights of defense that he would be guaranteed by the FIE. Neither the decision of theCentral American and Caribbean Fencing Confederation nor the letter from Mr. Barberena havepersuasive value in this matter.

After googling the name William Genet Barberena, this document from the CIA turned up:

Perhaps irrelevant, but you often get some interesting people involved in these situations...

Anyway maybe there is some personal feud between Benavides and Castro or maybe some greater political games at play, but it is quite concerning that Black cards can be used like this, especially in light of the Kharlan-Smirnova incident

If anyone knows more about the situation in Mexico then I'd love to know more.