58 years after the day the world was shaken by the “disaster in Lima”, the biggest tragedy in a football stadium

“I craved victory, but at this price I would prefer the most embarrassing of defeats.” The sentence belongs to Ernest Duchinicoach of the Argentine youth team, after witnessing the the tragedy with the most deaths in a football stadium, which took place on May 24, 1964. This Sunday marked the 58th anniversary of this event experienced in Lima, in the pre-Olympic tournament to qualify for the Tokyo Games. And history still contains many questions without accurate data.

The number of deaths has never been determined with certainty. Officials spoke of 312 dead and at least 500 injured. However, another version points out that at least 328 people were killed at the National Stadium, where on that day the youth teams of Argentina and Peru played for tickets to the Games.

The albiceleste team, whose unique players include Roberto Perfumo, goalkeeper Agustín Mario Cejas and Héctor “PochinOchoa (he died Tuesday, May 19, at age 77), has won all four of his games and one win gave him classification. The Peruvians, meanwhile, have two wins and a draw and are looking to win to get on track.

Argentina led 18 minutes into the second half, with a goal from Néstor Manfredi. Peru, who as a result saw their chances lost, could be matched, but their goal was nullified and from that moment on everything was dug up in an uncontrollable way.

What happened? With 10 minutes left, a long pass traveled from the right to the center of the Argentina area. The ball passed Perfumo and landed where Horacio Morales was, who tried to clear it. Next to him was Peruvian striker Víctor Lobatón, who was charging. The ball hit the foot of his loot and went to Cejas. The entire court shouted intentionally not because Uruguayan referee Angel Eduardo Pazos overturned it because of a violation by Lobatón against Morales.

“This is very dirty on the left end of the Peru attack. Morales was number ‘4’ and he was hit hard. The ball went very fast towards the goal and Cejas did not catch it. He went inside the arch. This is the tie that can remove Brazil and classified Peru. There the hecatomb was armed“said Ochoa Page 12.

The stands have a capacity for 47,000 spectators, although it is estimated that more people than are allowed to enter. Everything is overflowing. Peruvian fans, like soccer players, complained to the Uruguayan judge. After a few minutes, everyone calmed down and the game continued.

A barrabrava at the time, who used to storm the playing field when he was not satisfied, entered the grounds of the National Stadium. This is Víctor Vásquez Campos, alias “The Black Bomb”. The police released him in a good way, but pressure cooker that the atmosphere.

“Tensions are mounting in the stands, especially in the East and North. From the beginning, another fan, Germán Cuenca, entered holding a bottle of spout,” said Efraín Rúa, a Peruvian journalist with author of the book “El purpose of death. The Legend of the Negro Bomb and the tragedy of the stadium”, in the agency Newspapers in Buenos Aires.

They said the police this time were more violent and as they tried to remove this supporter who wanted to attack the referee, the Black Bomb He jumped back onto the lawn. And there everything got out of control: the officers beat him and the dogs attacked him and that caused a massive assault. The response was an intense repression, with tear gas at close range, causing stampedes on the stands.

Dozens of people ran for the exit. Most entrances are closed: a death trap. Many were crushed or suffocated. Most of the deaths occurred at gates 10, 11, and 17. Despair held the scene for a long time. The match was canceled five minutes from the end. Some fans started fighting with the police and burned the wooden chairs.

The excitement and horror continued off the pitch. Looting, robbery, destruction and more lives were lost on the streets. Reinforcements arrived and everyone was really fighting around. Some narratives of the following days detailed that 80 per cent of the dead were men, most of them young, between 18 and 22 years of age; and 10 percent were children and another similar percentage, women.

There are seven days of national mourning in Peru and the Government has mandated by law to suspend individual guarantees for 30 days. Ang Black Bomb He was arrested two days after the fact of the Guardia Sibil. There were 50 other detainees, including Commander Jorge de Azambuja, who was in charge of the operation. He admitted that he was ordered to drop the gas bombs and received a sentence of only 30 months. That was just the final verdict in the case.

In sports, Argentina became champions in that pre-Olympic tournament and Peru played a playoff against Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, where they lost.

Benjamín Castañeda was the first judge in the case. He pointed to Juan Languasco, Minister of the Government of Fernando Belaúnde Terry. “The country is experiencing a situation of very strong social confrontation. The great demand of the people is the realization of an agrarian reform. Belaúnde Terry promised the nationalization of the oil fields and agrarian reform. And ten months into his government was nothing happened was able to follow nothing. Also on May 24 the bank strike was declared illegal. The streets were filled with police, “according to Rúa’s context.

The judge later confirmed that more had died than was said, because he kept that prisoners were used to bury corpses in secret cemeteries, who would fall victim to police bullets outside the field. And he encouraged the theory that it was not a wrongful action by the Police inadvertently, but it all had to do with a repressive government plan back in the day to intimidate citizens who were demonstrating en masse during those times.

At 58 years old, there are wounds that don’t close and culprits who don’t pay too much death.