“I have never seen such barbarity”, the crude phrase of the president of Gimnasia La Plata for the fight with a Boca Juniors fan

The president of Gimnasia La Plata, Gabriel Pellegrino, described this Friday as barbaric what was experienced at the time a club fan died as a result of the riots that forced the suspension of the key match against Boca for the Professional League on Thursday.

“I have never seen such barbarity. It was like in the worst times where they crossed bars against bars. But here it was the police against partners. We went back 20 years in the soccer ecosystem,” Pellegrino told La Red radio.

Gimnasia was the last team that football idol Diego Maradona led as DT before he died in 2020, on his sickbed.

The gymnastic Lobo fan César Regueiro (57 years old) died of a heart attack in the surroundings of the court.

Regueiro was trying to save his two grandchildren, aged 5 and 6, from a cloud of tear gas fired by the police to disperse members outside the Juan Zerillo stadium in La Plata, 60 km south of Buenos Ares.

Dozens of members trying to enter had their tickets in hand, but the police closed the doors when they saw the capacity of the stadium filled with 21,000 spectators.

By the twenty-third date, in the definition section, four dates from the end, Gymnastics received the ‘xeneizes’, second in the classification.

At 9 minutes the referee suspended the match when a cloud of tear gas covered the interior of the stadium.

Panic on the pitch

Thousands of people, including players and coaching staff, began to suffer from burning eyes and drowning, amid scenes of panic that involved entire families with children.

“My wife and two-year-old daughter who couldn’t breathe were there. When we all got to the locker room and we were saved I broke down (crying). Then we brought bottles of water to the people who were in the stands,” Leo Morales, a gymnastics player, told a press conference.

The fans desperately tried to break the perimeter fence to breathe easier inside the field.

For Lobo de la Plata it was the last opportunity to fight for the title, sixth with 37 points, seven behind the leader Atlético Tucumán (44).

In the same way, the shooting guard Boca (42), who aspired to regain the lead, played his luck in a fight for the championship that includes Racing (41), Huracán (40) and River (38).

The government of the province of Buenos Aires, the most populous in the country and whose capital city is La Plata, announced in a statement that it has relieved the head of the party’s police custody operation and has launched an investigation.

The government said that seven of the eight people treated due to the effect of the gases were discharged.

Regueiro is the fourth death so far this year due to violence on the pitches, said the NGO Salvemos al Fútbol, ​​according to which the total number of deaths since 1931 amounts to 342.

“It could have been a tragedy, because avalanches occur, they trample you and dozens die. This was prepared, there is a ‘black hand’. The responsibility lies with the police and the municipality that did not send paramedics and doctors,” Oscar Regueiro, the victim’s brother, said at a press conference.

The Regueiros are a large family with several members of the security forces.

“The police killed him. Being on the ground, decomposed, he could not breathe and they kept throwing gases where he was, ”one of the daughters of the deceased, Estefanía Regueiro, denounced on social networks.

The provincial government added: “It is inadmissible that last night thousands of people from La Plata had to live what they lived. Justice investigates if there was overselling of tickets. The operation was not able to provide security.” (D)