The Vice Ministry of Sport intervenes in the Santa Cruz Cantonal League due to lack of leadership

The Vice-Ministry of Sport ordered the exceptional and temporary administrative intervention of the Santa Cruz Cantonal Sports League due to a vacancy in its legal representation and appointed Master Hugo Fernando Angos Chávez as the interventor. The measure is detailed in Resolution No. MINEDEC-VD-2026-0054-R, signed on March 3, 2026, and published in the Fourth Supplement of the Official Registry No. 394 on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, on page 32.

The instrument was issued by the Ministry of Education, Sport, and Culture and signed by Vice-Minister Roberto Xavier Ibáñez Romero, in exercise of the delegation contained in Agreement No. MINEDEC-MINEDEC-2025-00056-A of October 21, 2025, amended by Agreement No. MINEDEC-MINEDEC-2026-00013-A of February 18, 2026. The grounds invoked are those of literal a) of article 165 of the Law of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation—vacancy in the legal representation of the sports organization—in accordance with article 230 of the new Organic Law of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation, published in the Sixth Supplement of the Official Registry No. 233 on February 11, 2026.

The case file is based on the report from the Directorate of Sports Affairs (memorandum MINEDEC-DAD-2026-0304-M of March 3, 2026) and memorandum MINEDEC-DDF-2026-0182-M from the Directorate of Formative Sport, which concluded that the cantonal League “does receive public funds from the State.” The text itself clarifies that the intervention “does not constitute a sanctioning measure, but rather an administrative action of an exceptional and temporary nature” aimed at guaranteeing institutional continuity and transparency in management.

A board with a term expired since October 2025

The League’s board was registered via Official Letter No. MD-CZ8-2023-0361-OF on April 5, 2023, for a four-year period between October 15, 2021, and October 15, 2025. Once that term expired, the organization did not consolidate a new board: the electoral process remained under an appeal filed by a representative of the Juvenile Specialized Formative Club (Official Letter No. 0160-CDEFJ-2025, of November 19, 2025), with suspensive effect pursuant to article 45 of the General Regulations of the Law of Sport.

The formal request for intervention was made by the president of the Provincial Sports Federation of Galápagos via Official Letter No. 022-FDPG-PRES-2026 on February 19, 2026, entered under procedure MINEDEC-DGD-2026-04348-EXT. The organization’s statute had been approved by Ministerial Agreement No. 1574 on December 20, 2012.

The interventor, the term, and their powers

• Hugo Fernando Angos Chávez, Master’s degree, citizenship ID 1709697690, designated interventor with legal, judicial, and extrajudicial representation of the organization.
• A term of 90 days to remedy the cause, extendable only once for an additional 90 days, according to article 163 of the law.
• Profile validated by the Directorate of Training and Certification of Sports System Activities (memorandum MINEDEC-DCCASD-2026-0055-M).
• Powers equivalent to those of the president and legal representative: convene and lead General Assemblies, grant approval for acts and contracts, admit or deny the affiliation of clubs and athletes, control accounts and budget execution, and inspect and administer real estate assets.
• Obligation to upload documentation to the Interventions System and to present a final report with administrative, financial, and technical justification.

Notifications, validity, and administrative route

The resolution orders the notification of fifteen entities, including the undersecretariats of Sports System Services, Physical Activity, and Sport, the General Administrative Financial Coordination, the directorates of Sports Affairs, Formative Sport, and Supervision and Defense of Sport, the designated interventor, the former board members registered in 2023, and the president of the Provincial Sports Federation of Galápagos.

The measure takes effect from its signing, without prejudice to its publication, and will cease to be effective—along with the position of the interventor—once the new board is elected and registered with the Ministry of Education, Sport, and Culture. The text also opens the administrative route to present defenses, safeguarding the right to defense provided for in article 76 of the Constitution.

The impact is direct for the clubs and athletes of the Santa Cruz canton, in Galápagos: the League is left without ordinary leadership and under ministerial administration until the electoral appeal is resolved and a new board is registered, in a context of transferred public resources and a sports calendar already affected by the lack of legal representation.

Source: Official Registry, Fourth Supplement No. 394, October 21, 2026, p. 32 (official reference: Resolution No. MINEDEC-VD-2026-0054-R).