Fans of Querétaro and Atlas face each other at La Corregidora stadium this Saturday. Sergio Gonzalez (AP)
On February 27, the body of Elisa N, mother of Alejandro N, a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was laid to rest at a funeral home in San José de Gracia, Michoacán, when another group from the same cartel broke into the funeral home to murder 17 people.
All this according to eyewitnesses.
The authorities did not see anything or find traces of what happened.
Minutes after the massacre, the killers removed the bodies and machine-cleaned the bloody floor.
The victims disappeared as if the bitter irony of dying in a funeral home was impossible.
San José de Gracia is the place where Luis González y González renewed the art of microhistory.
The title of his masterpiece alludes to the transitory condition of any place, but he acquired bitter forcefulness on February 27:
Pueblo en suspense
.
On Saturday, March 5, something not very different happened at the Corregidora Stadium in Querétaro.
Fans of Atlas and the local team, the Gallos Blancos, got involved in a battle in the stands that ended in the middle of the field and forced the game to be suspended in the 63rd minute. The violence was evident: bloodied faces, inert bodies that continued to be kicked , bloodless fans who were stripped of their shirts as if they were being skinned that way.
An Atlas fan claims to have seen a dead man.
It is not enough to appeal to the behavior of the ultras to explain what happened.
The brawl was possible thanks to the ineffectiveness of the police and, possibly, their complicity.
Atlas fans report that the authorities opened the gates that separated them from the Gallos Blancos brave bar and let them in with daggers and ice picks.
Despite the brutal images captured on television, the governor of Querétaro, Mauricio Kuri González, minimized the events: he pointed out that there were no deaths and recalled that the security of the stadium depends on the company that owns the team (yes, but the supervision of security depends on the State Government).
The violence that runs through Mexico is covered by the mantle of impunity.
An unreal homeland, of murders without corpses.
Football is not directly responsible for social deterioration.
When someone draws a dagger in the stands, he does not respond to the impulses of the sport, but to the deficiencies of his community.
In 1974 I witnessed a River-Boca classic at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires.
One person detected my accent and wanted to confirm something he had heard: "Is it true that in Mexico the equivalent of a Boca fan sits next to the equivalent of a River fan and they don't kill each other?"
At that time, the Mexican stands were a quiet place where spectators, so often disappointed by their own, turned their enthusiasm into resignation.
I thought my seatmate would be happy to know that we had peaceful fans;
However, the news that he could live with his rivals without dying in the attempt made him exclaim in an unforgettable way: "Uh, but what degenerates!"
Half a century after that scene, there is no doubt that the Mexican soccer public has degraded to the beat of the society that gave rise to it.
The followers of the Gallos Blancos del Querétaro and the Atlas already had a history in this regard.
In 2015, another game was suspended at the Corregidora Stadium due to attacks on San Luis fans, and in 2014, Atlas fans surrounded the Monterrey club outside the Jalisco Stadium and only called off their attack when the police dispersed them with gas. tear gas.
Curiously, the historical motto of the red and black fans is: "I'm going to Atlas even if I win".
For decades, that club was a school of stoicism.
Today is a pretext for the brawl.
However, this does not distinguish football from other behaviors: violence has become a habitual way of relating to the other.
Most Mexicans repudiate this conduct.
If the country bleeds to death, it is because an increasingly large minority acts without the slightest resistance.
In economic terms, the Mexican League is the most successful in the American continent.
For a long time, managers have neglected to promote sports quality, privileging profits.
In television broadcasts, the image is interrupted in the middle of the game to promote a hamburger and the players are transferred from one club to another regardless of their will.
Jesús Manuel Corona had the misfortune of being born with a beer surname and being hired by a team that was sponsored by another beer.
To avoid this absurd conflict of interest, the board nicknamed him Tecatito.
In a country where a player's name is changed to advertise the correct beer, football is nothing more than a profitable product.
If managers lack sports ethics, why should fans?
The primary source of violence is not in the stands or on the field: it is in the boxes.
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