BY MARK LORENZANA

Mexico’s Supreme Court (SCJN) on Thursday, Dec, 7, ordered the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (Conade) to pay Mexican fencer Paola Pliego 15 million pesos in moral damages caused by an erroneous doping test that prevented her from participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In February 2020, Fourteenth Civil Judge Francisco René Ramírez Rodríguez originally ruled in favor of Pliego and cleared her of any wrongdoing, but three years later the fencer, who decided to leave the Mexican national fencing team in 2019 and now represents Uzbekistan, still had not received compensation from Conade, after the sports agency filed an amparo or injunction against the ruling.

In compliance with the SCJN’s recent decision, judges of the Eighth Collegiate Court in Civil Matters in Mexico City on Thursday shot down the amparo.

“The magnitude of the damage to the psychological and moral integrity of the plaintiff is high,” Ramírez Rodríguez said in his original ruling in 2020.

“There constitutes a strong and consistent indication that the procedures with which the samples were analyzed and the results issued by the National Laboratory were erroneous and the product of inexcusable negligence that would ultimately cause moral damage, as well as various damages to the plaintiff.“

According to Mexico’s National Control Laboratory — which is under the Conade — and accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, Pliego’s first test had allegedly detected 540 nanograms of modafinil, a substance used to treat narcolepsy, in her system.

It was in July 2016 when the Mexican Fencing Federation (FME) notified Pliego that she failed one of three anti-doping tests that she took a month before, after competing in the Pan American Fencing Championships in Panama and winning bronze.

Pliego subsequently requested a second test, and maintained her innocence in an emotional press conference.

“I will not allow this cloud, which I want to leave behind, to end my sporting career,” Pliego said.

“I will pick myself up and will fight to recover all that I lost and that was unjustifiably taken from me.”

Pliego said that she suffers from asthma and takes the supplement manganese, which, if combined with modafinil, could have been fatal.

The second test conducted by Hans Geyer — a doctor based at the Institute for Biochemistry at the German Sports University in Cologne — came back negative for the substance.

Geyer, in a statement, said that a different method was needed to test for the substance, and the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) asked Conade to send the original urine sample to his lab in Germany.

According to Geyer, the substance was not found in Pliego’s system because the molecule of modafinil resembles that of dimenhydrinate, an antihistamine known by the trade name Dramamine.

The International Fencing Federation (FIE) notified Pliego of the result on Sept. 12, 2016, and decided to drop the anti-doping sanctions against her.

In April of this year, before the SCJN ruling, Conade head Ana Guevara said that her agency will not pay compensation to Pliego, and that it was the responsibility instead of the National Control Laboratory.

“We respect that a judge (Ramírez Rodríguez) ruled that Pliego should be compensated, but the Conade will no pay the compensation,” Guevara said.

“The laboratory had insurance, so it was them that was supposed to pay for the remuneration.”

This is not the first time that Guevara —  appointed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in 2018 to the Conade post — has been embroiled in controversy involving Mexican athletes.

In May of this year, the Mexican synchronized swimming team finished second in the World Aquatics Championships in Egypt despite funding cuts by Conade, which Guevara announced in January after the global governing body World Aquatics did not recognize Kiril Todorov, the president of the Mexican Swimming Federation (FMN), who is facing a trial for alleged embezzlement.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has accused him of misappropriating some $8.7 million that the FMN received from public resources.

Guevara has not been shy in reiterating her unqualified support for Todorov.

For her part, Pliego in 2019 announced that she would compete under the flag of Uzbekistan at the 2019 Fencing World Cup in Budapest, Hungary, citing “corruption of the Mexican Olympic Committee” as the main reason for her decision.

Ironically, another Mexican fencer, Natalia Botello, defeated defeated Pliego in a close match in Hungary, 14 to 15.