In the first paragraph of the page of the Safety Commission of the Department of Recreation lead by Gerardo Mora and Sports of Puerto Rico pulsating writing is shown, indicating the responsibility of said body:
The purpose of the Puerto Rico Recreation and Sports Safety Commission is to guarantee that high-risk recreational or sports activities are carried out under the safety standards established by it and ensuring the maximum well-being, development and enjoyment of the themselves. The Commission will provide and facilitate resources and services to the organizations, Municipalities, Federations, Associations and Clubs, providing them with advice and education for the development of their activities under the standards established by the Law and the Commission.
Like any government body mission, the mission that the DRD employs with its Security Commission indicates the bases by which they will be governed in the future. Since Mr. Gerardo Mora arrived as director of the mentioned body, it seems that these responsibilities have become nonexistent, obsolete, and even abstract.
Two years ago (almost three), Mr. Mora sat with one of the individuals with the least voice and the worst reputation in the Lucha Libre scene. The interview, which was analyzed in Impacto Estelar on June 19, 2017, had a director, Mora, seeking a strict regulation for Lucha Libre in Puerto Rico. Mora, who at the time was fresh from obtaining his position in the security commission with the victory of Ricardo Rosselló’s New Progressive Party (PNP) in 2016, showed a serious impetus and focus in his work to “reform” the already emaciated fight scene. On Impacto Estelar, I summarized what Mr. Mora intended for that time:
… the Commission is looking for those same, stop the clandestine and make this something legitimate where everyone is certified. Regulating all members of an event with licenses is the first step. When you look at the statistics of who is certified and who is not, they give bad news.
If this extract sounds positive, it is because it is. Many, including the writer, saw this initiative by the commission to finally level the fight scene in resemblance to the United States as something positive. However, Gerardo Mora and his “mission” proved to be non-existent and riddled with errors and opportunism.
Since the wrestlers were reunited at the DRD in San Juan and vowed to regulate wrestling, the scene remains intact. The license they praised so much as a simple $ 20 document that offered no benefits to wrestlers, does not protect them and did not even work to differentiate themselves from an unlicensed wrestler. Clandestine matches followed their route, with Mora and her alleged body accompanied by the Department of the Treasury having the same presence as Savio Vega when it is time to pay what was due to talent. The wrestlers eventually recognized, as it has been with the administration with which Mora is part of, that it was all empty promises, without foundation.
Now, two years into the present, Gerardo Mora wants to tell the same story and with more threat. According to Metal, who interviewed Mora for his program on Fox Deportes (PR), “the commissioner indicated that he gave wrestlers and companies three years to catch up.” Mora appears to have left a door open for everyone to receive their license and for promoters to register to “stay up to date” or “in-law.” But, according to this (Mora), already this year they come to bring order to the Lucha Libre. In a threatening tone, this insipid skeleton of the DRD indicated to WWC and Ricky Banderas:
Mora: “I’m going to speak clearly to you Capitol [WWC]… It’s… it’s [sic] announcing Ricky Banderas. Banderas [El Mesias] is not licensed. ”
Metal: “oops”
Mora: “Ehh… Please I ask you. Start working … Hermanos Colón [Primo Colon and Epico], with the licenses of your wrestlers. Because I do not want to appear with the Treasury there and that you have problems. I ask you please and Jovica knows how much of a person I am … and your father knows the quality of person that I am … I don’t want to have to go to an event and have to paralyze the event for lack of licenses from the fighters. I’m telling you so that later you don’t say that Mora was bad. ”
One can notice in the tone the same seriousness with which he fooled the wrestlers three years ago. Even the same narrative of going down with “hacienda”. It can be inferred that what has changed is that a threatening tone was raised against one of the largest companies on the island (the oldest). Will Mr. Mora go to WWC if an agreement does not occur? I do not doubt it and even more now that you want to prove a point. But the point here is another and remarkable. Mora was missing in the industry for three years and the work has been lousy. Now that there are new airs of new administrations and elections, he has left the cave to claim his position as a director. The problem that Mr. Mora has in his hands right now is the following: he was never an authority figure, he never fulfilled on his promises and his work in other sports has been just as great.
In a column by Carlos González from Primera Hora, the action (or inaction of Mora) in the sport of boxing is reviewed:
It is stipulated that each Commission under the umbrella of the DRD must be made up of people with extensive knowledge in the respective sport they represent. However, Mora’s philosophy seems to be that commissioners are decorative items of little relevance. If that is the reality, it would be logical to anticipate that for him the regulations are dead letter.
How the Boxing Commission is operating in Puerto Rico is a mystery. The regulation stipulates that it can be made up of a maximum of seven people. However, currently only four are exercising the various responsibilities.
González then explains that Mora and his colleagues are not prepared to enforce the security commission. Mas speaks of suspicion of hiring employees who are no longer even in the country. Finally, the writer gives him the last conclusion we need to know about Mora’s work outside of Lucha Libre:
What will Mora’s intentions be? At the moment, they are not clear, but their connections within the Senate are evident. On social networks, Mora has published images of various political activities with the senator of the New Progressive Party (PNP), Axel “Chino” Roque Gracia, who chairs the Youth and Sports Commission. In other words, Mora gives the impression that he is paying a bill for having helped during a past campaign.
The Professional Boxing Commission requires profound, not superficial, changes. They must be in charge of those people with sufficient merits and knowledge to start the sport in the right direction. Gerardo Mora, Adriana Sánchez Parés, and Maxye Díaz -deputy secretary of the DRD- are the least indicated because the Boxing Commission does exist to supervise.
If a sport with so much seriousness and greater tradition than wrestling, which has a greater reception in the Puerto Rican community, is facing these problems with Gerardo Mora, what awaits Lucha Libre?
According to several officials from the main companies in Puerto Rico, what is expected is still little. An officer at a wrestling school quite broadly told me that Mora has only posed with cameras and employed them to pay licenses without any rigor at $20. That is, today I can go with the papers that the commission that Mora directs requires me and they can give me a wrestler’s license, without any prior training. In addition, this officer indicated that Mora does not have the equipment or the necessary vision to use an inspection at this point in the year. It should be noted that the syntax change here. For boxing, Mora indicates that they want to facilitate. But, now, he wants to audit, a year before the elections.
The wrestling company, CWA, goes further, indicating the flaws in the regulation that the now promoter Edwin Vázquez Ortega (Cobra) worked on in 2015. According to the company, CWA is exempt from the commission’s regulations, due to a flaw of the now archaic regulation to which Mora wants to adhere: “The regulation indicates that the wrestling event must take place in a 16 X 16 or 20 X 20 ring …” The official adds: “As everyone knows, CWA presents a hexahedral … technically CWA does not practice Wrestling, CWA does not present wrestling … according to the regulations. However, we regulate ourselves effectively… we maintain and follow most of the regulations signed in 2015. ”
The CWA officer even attacks the highly acclaimed regulation that now Mr. Mora wants to be valid: “… that regulation is an exact copy of the regulation signed in 1997 or 1999. At that time it was signed by the secretary of state, Norma Burgos, under the administration of Pedro Rosselló. … that was the last regulation that was signed prior to 2015. Therefore there is a period of 15 years … in which the new regulation could be tempered with the times and it was not done … problem with the regulation is the intervention what a company can or cannot do. ” The official concludes that the fans and promoters agree with the industry being regulated.
Of course, everything is in agreement, the problem, as we have already proven, has been the disastrous work of Mora. The WWL in this case did not want to comment, but they were analyzing the history of Lucha Libre as a show to know what to do next.
So, after all the above, what is left of the image of Mr. Gerardo Mora? With what we have been able to sculpt, it can be concluded that Mora is an opportunist, who joins the political power to reach his position in the Security Commission. That his philosophy of “facilitating” instead of “supervising” has led him to have a serious performance on his committee and that, now that the elections are approaching, he wants to remedy his work. In Lucha Libre, the only contacts he makes are when there are cameras, especially those provided by the ghoul, Metal, who wants to appear neutral, but deep down he is a cheap polemic, who always approaches a billboard where he can be wrapped up his name, it creates a clumsy controversy for them to remember his unsightly face. Gerardo Mora can now come to regulate what he could never do, but the reality of the case is that his record screams politicking, irresponsibility, and opportunism.
