The confrontation between a group of supporters of River and agents of the National Police of Peru during the match that the team led by Martin Demichelisdrew 1-1 with Sporting Cristal on Thursday at the National Stadium in Lima left as the most shocking image the bloodied face of one of the fans who braided with the uniformed.
The corpulent man with a naked torso and bellicose spirit who could be seen arguing with the agents in one of the stands of the enclosure of the Peruvian capital was Ariel Pato Calvici, one of the leaders of the barra brava of the Núñez club.
Calvici became a visible figure in the millionaire tribune mainly from 2014, when a fight for control of the River bar was taking place between Los Borrachos del Tablón, led by Martín "de Ramos" Araujo and Guillermo "Caverna" Godoy, and La Banda del Oeste (with the support of another group called Los Patovicas).
Pato, who originally answered to Los Borrachos del Tablón, then distanced himself from the Araujo and Godoy faction, joined the side that sought to take control of the tribune (and its businesses) and quickly assumed a leadership position in that group.
At that time he was indicated as the intellectual author and participant of the operation of robbery of two curtains, drums, umbrellas and banners belonging to Los Borrachos del Tablón of a house located in the northern area of the Buenos Aires Conurbano. This happened on August 17, 2014, hours before a match against Rosario Central at the Monumental.
Ariel Calvici (black cap) and Guillermo Godoy (red cap), when they shared space in the grandstand.
On November 25 of that year, the group led by Calvici attacked Los Borrachos del Tablón in the club's confectionery on the eve of the rematch against Boca for one of the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana. For that fact, Pato was prosecuted for illicit association, damages, serious injuries and aggravated coercion, accepted an abbreviated trial and received a sentence of two years and six months. On 31 May 2016, he was released.
At the end of that year, Calvici was again the protagonist in a judicial case, but this time as a victim: Alejandro Luis Rivaud, who worked in the Criminal Investigations Division of the Metropolitan Police, was prosecuted along with Martín Araujo and Matías Goñi, another bar, for aggravated coercion against Pato.
Ariel Calvici (black cap and muscle) with his companions from La Barra Del Oeste. (Clarín Archive)
After serving his sentence, Calvici reassembled a smaller group of approximately 100 men, who usually attend the Centennial Tribune. He cannot do it, since he was included in the list of supporters who are banned from entering the stadiums. That did not prevent that in July of last year he showed himself with a group of around 300 people who had traveled to Villa Mercedes for a match that River was to play with Barracas Central for the Argentine Cup.
His face, this time bloodied by two cuts suffered in the head and neck, was again exhibited this Thursday at the National Stadium in Lima during the fight that would have originated, according to witnesses, after an interview between members of the Lima del Millonario subsidiary and agents of the Peruvian National Police.
According to the news portal Infobae, the members of the branch would have generated disturbances and when the police tried to stop them, an officer would have slipped. When he fell to the ground, the fans would have kicked him. This episode would have been the trigger for the confrontation, to which the bars would have joined. The officers took out their batons and repressed, and the fans retreated.
Calvici and his injured teammates were treated by medical personnel in the stands of the National Stadium and even stayed to watch the rest of the match between Demichelis' team and Sporting Cristal.
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