Argentinian organisation BESTIA has indefinitely suspended its Co-CEO and Co-owner, Santiago “Santutu” Rodriguez, after he made racist comments during a live broadcast. The move follows swift public backlash and formal apologies from both the esports organisation and Rodriguez himself.

The incident occurred during a stream on Sunday, January 31, in which Santutu responded to criticism following BESTIA’s elimination from the FiRe CONTER S1 Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) tournament in Buenos Aires. He told a critic to “Continue on Twitter, you [..] black guy. Keep cursing, because the team is mine, they pay me, it’s all mine, it’s all for me.” Facing intense scrutiny, BESTIA announced the indefinite suspension of the CEO via social media on Monday night.

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In a statement, the organisation sought to distance itself from the remarks, referring to Rodriguez as an “influencer”: “These expressions and opinions do not represent nor reflect our values as an organisation and, therefore, we categorically reject any form of racism or discrimination.”

Prior to the suspension announcement, Rodriguez also issued a personal apology on his social media channels. “Truly and with all honesty, I can’t believe what I said in my stream yesterday. It does not represent me and does not speak at all to who I am as a human being,” he wrote. “I am sorry from the bottom of my heart to everyone. I will step away for a time to reflect on my actions and think about everything that happened.”

Rodriguez is positioned as a corporate/brand CEO and content-oriented leader of BESTIA’s broader business side, while the organisation’s Founder Alejandro “Papo MC“ Lococo is presented as the esports CEO and public face for competitive activities.

Lococo also commented the case on social media, stating: “There are times when words are unnecessary, this is one of them. We publicly apologise on behalf of BESTIA for what happened. We condemn any act of discrimination, it does not coincide with the values of our organisation, this cannot and will not happen again.” He also revealed he had just concluded a two-hour call with Santutu, who was “totally remorseful and sorry for his actions.”

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