Exclusive: Jose Puello Resumes Bid for PASO Presidency

(ATR) Jose Puello tells Around the Rings he is back in the race to become the next president of the Pan American Sports Organization.

Puello, a neurosurgeon from the Dominican Republic, had an operation to heal a herniated disc several weeks ago and originally thought complications from his surgery would prevent him from continuing his presidential campaign. His doctors now say he is progressing well.

"I have the current opinion of my neurosurgeon and he says my recovery is going very fast and I’ll be in the race again," Puello tells ATR. "Right now I’m very well, I’m walking again and I’m operating [on patients] again. So I will rejoin the race."

Puello throws his name back in the hat along with IOC member Richard Peterkin from St. Lucia, PASO vice president Keith Joseph of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Chilean Olympic Committee president Neven Ilic.

Although there are currently three candidates from the Caribbean and Central America, Puello says the three men have a gentleman’s agreement that only one of them will represent the region in the election.

"We have an impartial witness, Richard Carrion, who will look at what everybody is putting forward to become president of PASO and then he will have his own opinion about who he thinks could be the best option," Puello tells ATR.

Puello, Joseph and Peterkin will listen to the IOC member from Puerto Rico’s decision before making a final determination of who will be the Caribbean and Central American representative.

"But one thing needs to be certain is that Richard, Keith Joseph and myself are a team, and one will be the candidate but the other two will be working in PASO and implementing the programs we are putting forward to everybody in the Americas," he says.

Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman is also rumored to be a fifth member of the presidential race and the supposed favorite if he were to announce his candidacy. Puello says the Caribbean trio is not concerned about who the other candidates in the race will be as long as the next president is chosen fairly.

"No buying votes, no putting money under the table," he says. "Those things have been done in the Olympic Movement for many years and we are all against that, starting with [IOC president] Thomas Bach. It is so important that the Olympic leaders behave according to what we believe in fair play."

The candidates can officially begin their campaigns once the revised PASO constitution receives final approval following the ANOC General Assembly in Doha, Qatar this November.

The statutes mandate that each candidate will have 90 days to campaign before an election can take place, pushing the vote to the end of February 2017 at the earliest.

Reported by Kevin Nutley

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