Two beaten policemen, the theft of a regulation pistol from one of them, and dozens of cars that were attacked by criminals was the balance of a police operation at the Kempes Stadium that had initially been defined as “successful” by part of the authorities.
The deployment of security for the match that Talleres and Vélez Sársfield played on Wednesday night has practically no history in the city of Córdoba. A total of 1,100 affected police officers, in addition to another 300 from private security, ended up configuring a high-impact figure for prevention in a historic episode for local sports: 60,000 people witnessed for the first time a team from Córdoba playing a match for the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores de América.
The previous one had been more than heated. A violence that began last week in the state of Amalfitani, when a group of local bars attacked the 350 Cordovans who had entered with protocol tickets in full audience. Since that savage aggression, everything related to the revenge match was framed by this episode.
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The Córdoba Police and the private security of Talleres then went to work in what was defined as a high-risk game. Talleres decided to prohibit the presence of the visiting public, but for long days an alleged avalanche of Vélez fans who were going to travel to “infiltrate” the Kempes was ignited on social networks, and especially in journalistic media in Buenos Aires. Something that wasn’t real.
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A control operation was planned on the routes, the hotel where Vélez stayed in the Poeta Lugones neighborhood was virtually shielded and the buses of both delegations traveled to the state in the so-called “security capsules.”
An impressive display of police officers that generated logical reactions in two ways: when did the passion for football become so dangerous? Why is such a deployment of police not seen in the neighborhoods of Córdoba every day, while insecurity does not let up?
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The concrete thing is that inside the Kempes there were no incidents. The 60,000 spectators behaved in a civilized manner and it was not necessary to regret any episode like the one that occurred a week before in Buenos Aires.
But outside the stadium there were several problems.
On the one hand, two police officers from the Motorcycle division were beaten by fans of Talleres when they surrounded the local bus and welcomed it upon arrival at the stadium. A reception that was not planned and that altered the plans a bit. It was in the midst of this situation that the two policemen were surrounded by a large group of people, who ended up beating them and throwing them to the ground. One of them had his service weapon stolen, which undoubtedly ended up becoming a serious episode, since there was at least one armed person in the crowd throughout the night. The pistol has not yet been recovered and the police officers had to receive medical assistance.
In the middle of the game, meanwhile, a federal police officer accompanying the Vélez delegation had to leave the stadium after it was found that he had entered with his weapon, despite not being authorized to do so.
At the end of the meeting, in addition, a group of Talleres fans who had traveled from Arroyito found the unpleasant surprise that the criminals had opened their cars, two Toyota Corollas, and had stolen spare wheels and other valuables. . The vehicles had been left parked under one of the bridges of the Circunvalación, in front of the Kempes. There, they had to pay 500 pesos to a “naranjita”.
Nicolás, one of the owners of the cars, said that the thieves did not break the vehicles, so it is suspected that they inhibited them or that they used the “Pandora” system that has recently begun to wreak havoc in Córdoba.
After the broadcast of this case, several Cadena 3 listeners reported having suffered similar episodes: leaving the court and finding that their cars had been broken into by thieves.
In other words, despite the impressive deployment of 1,100 police officers within a radius of a few kilometers, the criminals once again did their thing around the Kempes.