Eduardo Paladini
11/26/2020 16:15
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 11/26/2020 4:21 PM
Perhaps as the coronavirus pandemic did not, at least in such a short time and with such intensity, the farewell to
Diego Armando Maradona
presented a challenge for the security of the national government and that of the City.
Due to the place where it was chosen to display the body of the star, the Casa Rosada, and the surroundings, which would be taken over by fans, the operation required a precise coordination between the security forces of both administrations.
And, from what Clarín was able to verify, that coordination did not exist.
Shortly after 12 o'clock, when it was already certain that the four hours that remained ahead would be insufficient to guarantee the parade of such a crowd (the queue came from the door of the Government House to the surroundings of the Constitución station) they
began to calls should be intensified between officials of the Nation and the City
to, at that point, minimize incidents that seemed inevitable.
At that time, Buenos Aires Police officers had had a first encounter with part of the Boca brave bar.
They contained it.
And the Federal Police?
Although the operation was joint ("for each agent of the City there was one from the Federal", exemplified an official source),
the national government gave an order not to repress
.
"For an ideological issue," justified an official.
Shortly after noon the bolt was planned.
The order was to close the access roads to Avenida de Mayo (May 25, Reconquista and the North and South diagonals) so that the crowd is concentrated on a single road.
"At some point you have to close the end of Avenida de Mayo and
surely there will be incidents
with those who are on the other side," evaluated a leader of the City early before the
Clarín
query
.
That is what happened.
The first big incidents appeared when the endless line was cut with a fence on July 9.
Why wasn't the farewell schedule extended?
"Claudia and the family are inflexible with taking the body at 16", explained the official sources to this newspaper.
Due to this intransigence, from Wednesday night the idea of organizing a caravan with the coffin was discussed, so that the crowd left outside could greet the idol from one side of the street.
"The family was told that there was no helicopter to carry the box and that is why yes or yes you have to make a caravan. With Alfonsín, for example, it was like that," added the sources.
What was not anticipated early, of course, is that
the overflow would reach inside the Casa Rosada itself
, with people climbing the bars freely and moving through the patio of the Palms as if it were the patio of their house.
