The horror of the violence in Mexico has also crept into soccer stadiums.

The bloody and brutal images left by Saturday's pitched battle in Querétaro, between local and Atlas fans in a league match, transcend the possible rivalry between two fans in a sports show.

It is the reflection of a country in which violence permeates everything: that of the daily massacres, that of the disappeared, the one that kills seven journalists so far this year.

A country in which the questions accumulate, the answers are insufficient and doubts hover over each event.

A country, this Mexico, in which it is increasingly difficult to describe the level of degradation reached.

Or how else can you explain that by wearing a shirt contrary to yours you end up naked, kicked and humiliated, between life and death.

It is also difficult to put adjectives or nouns to what happens.

Pitched battle, fight, incidents... Everything is insufficient to define this new tragedy, a word that, on the other hand, is already almost innocuous in Mexico.

The events of Saturday have left 26 people injured, three of them seriously, according to the first version of the Mexican authorities.

It is worth emphasizing the latter, since it is something that is questioned in Mexico.

As for the dead, there was also no record of any detainee.

Hours later, despite the images that circulated around the world, despite the faces of those who beat others to exhaustion, there had been no arrest.

Nothing unusual, on the other hand, in a country where more than 90% of crimes remain unsolved.

The authorities, yes, made an effort as always to ensure that "nothing will go unpunished",

as the governor of Querétaro, Mauricio Kuri, said, and that the Prosecutor's Office had already opened investigation folders for the crime of attempted murder.

Against whom it was, however, an enigma.

Little more than 60 minutes of the match between Querétaro and Atlas had been played when the aggressions between the fans began to steal the attention of what was happening on the field.

Alarmed by the virulence of the fights, hundreds of fans desperately went down to the grass to take shelter from the beatings that took place in the stands and that later spread to the pitch and the outskirts of the stadium.

Players from both teams sought refuge in the changing rooms.

What sparked the pitched battle is unclear.

The rivalry between Querétaro and Atlas did not mean an alarm in Mexico as they were two mid-table teams.

However, the controversies between both teams date back to 2007, when La Resistencia Albiazul faced La 51, from Atlas,

after a red and black victory took Querétaro to the Second Division.

The violent episodes followed years later, but never to the extremes of what happened on Saturday, with 0-1 on the scoreboard.

The first responsibilities for security failures point to the private company in charge of the operation in the stadium.

The Querétaro authorities, in the first press conference after the tragedy, assured that they did not deploy all the elements to which they had promised in the previous meetings about the operation that would govern the stadium.

Regarding the absence of state police in the surrounding area, they did not provide further information.

The reaction of the Mexican League was also highly criticized.

Saturday's games continued to be played despite the images that came from Querétaro, and it was not until social pressure, especially through the networks, grew that the president of the League, Mikel Arriola, a former PRI politician, decided to suspend the day this Sunday.

However, there are many voices in Mexico that ask that, as a lesson and as a reflection, everything that remains of the League be suspended.

Something that, on the other hand, seems chimerical and that would further damage the image of a country that will host, along with the United States and Canada, the 2026 World Cup.

In real time

What happened at the Corregidora stadium becomes one of the most infamous chapters in the history of soccer.

Only the tragedy of Port Said, in Egypt, 10 years ago now, in which more than 70 people died and 1,000 were injured, can be considered of a magnitude greater than that of the confrontation between the fans of Querétaro and Atlas.

The episode in Mexico recalls the worst that could be lived among the English

decades ago and mother of the Argentine brave bars.

With a very clear difference: then there was hardly any graphic record of the incidents themselves, while this Saturday the videos about the brutality of the alleged fans circulated in real time.

The images have questioned the official version that there were no deaths after the brawl, when bodies have been seen lying motionless on the ground after being beaten until exhaustion.

The authorities, however, assure that some of these people were later identified in the hospital.

"We will use all the technology to find each one of those responsible and that they never set foot in the stadium again," said Governor Mauricio Kuri.

Some statements also seem vague because the tragedy of this country is not that they step on a soccer field again, but that they may even be subjected to a judicial process.

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