CPTnet
26 April 2006

CACARICA, COLOMBIA: The most important match in Colombian history

by Julián Gutiérrez

Translated by Noah Dillard and Joel Klassen

We Colombians remember with pride our historic soccer matches. With our
chests thrust out, we recall the 4-4 tie against the Soviet Union in '66
that happened during the 1966 and 1990 World Cup finals in Chile and Italy.
There was the 1-1 draw against Germany, who would later become the
undefeated world champions, and of course, the glorious 5-0 win over
Argentina during the 1994 eliminations in the USA.

But Colombia's soccer history is not composed solely of triumphs: we have
also played matches that we would like to erase from our memory--tragic
events that "never happened."

In the latter category was the shameful February 1997 match in the Darién
jungle. It was a national match. FIFA, soccer's international regulatory
body, did not want to recognize the results for several reasons: the players
were not wearing uniforms. Players, coaches and referees were so liquored
up that it never was clear whether the game finished. On top of all these
reasons, the soccer ball was not an official FIFA ball. It was the head of
community leader Marino Lopez.

For this reason the game had to be erased from history, from the media. It
was a game that never happened, even though it was played.

Paramilitaries kicked the head of Marino López was around for several
hours. The match ended triumphantly for the paramilitaries over the
population--whom they had forced to watch the match. To celebrate the
victory and record the humiliation of the losers, the soccer players
proceeded to slaughter the men, rape the women, and burn the houses in a
drunken bash that left behind the stench of alcohol, roast pig, and sex.

This game inaugurated one of the projects that the state took on in the
decade of the 1990s. Operation Genesis, headed by the illustrious General
Rito Alejo del Río, candidate for senate in the last elections, heralded a
long-delayed project--to clean Urabá of guerrillas, as well as other
inhabitants of the region. They wanted the people out to clear the way for
mega construction projects. Among the more significant are the Panamerican
Highway, and a canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the
Atrato River. President Ernesto Samper Pizano used these projects to divert
the nation's attention from the scandal around the influence of drug
trafficking money on his government. The corresponding debate about "narco
democracy" that dominated the nation has today been turned into reality by
President Álvaro Uribe Velez, then star senator of the Samper Government.

The sporting encounter had the desired effect on López' widow, daughters,
sons, and neighbors. Thousands of people displaced from the coveted lands.
The reign of terror that began with that soccer match is etched in the
memory of the population, although the rest of Colombia continues to ignore
those "matches to be forgotten," and to celebrate those glorious moments
against the USSR, Germany, and Argentina.