Argentines say goodbye to soccer legend Diego Maradona this Thursday in a wake at the Casa Rosada for which tens of thousands of people are expected. Despite the pandemic, many expect the wake to be as massive as Evita in 1952 or Juan Perón in 1974. Argentine President Alberto Fernández declared three days of national mourning.
Since midnight, hundreds of admirers have gathered in the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the emblematic Casa Rosada, to be able to enter to say goodbye to the idol, a day after he died of cardiac arrest at home. “The opening hours of doors for the general public will be from 06.00 hours (09.00 GMT) to 16.00 hours (19.00 GMT),” reported a presidential statement after at the last minute Maradona’s family decided to shorten the wake from three days to one.
Around midnight, Maradona’s body left the morgue towards a funeral home, from where it was transferred to the Casa Rosada surrounded by a strong security device. Claudia Villafañe, Maradona’s ex-wife, and their two daughters, Dalma and Gianinna, arrived at the presidential headquarters before midnight. Along the way, and at every step, the caravan of dozens of patrol cars and police motorcycles received applause. When the vehicle arrived at the funeral home, there were already about a thousand fans waiting for it. “He is a genius, he is a people, he is us, life and love,” said Andrés Quintero, a 42-year-old restaurateur who traveled two hours from the city of Tigre to follow Maradona.
The tributes were repeated in various parts of the city. Thousands of fans gathered on Wednesday in the emblematic neighborhood of La Boca, where the famous Bombonera is located, or in the central Obelisco. On the Boca Juniors court, fans set up a shrine with flowers and candles.
At the cry of «Marado! Marado! ”, About 1,000 fans stormed Wednesday night into the Diego Armando Maradona stadium of the Argentinos Juniors club, in the northwest of Buenos Aires, to pay homage to the idol under a multi-colored shower of fireworks. ‘El Pelusa’ made his debut at that stadium in the first division at the age of 15. With flags, trumpets and banners in hand, Maradona’s fans shook the stands with their galloping step, while the pitch, empty and silent, was lit up in the middle of the night. “Diego, you are my life, you are the joy of my heart,” the crowd chanted in unison during the half hour that the event lasted.
It’s been a long time since I was the same
According to the preliminary results of the autopsy, he suffered from “acute heart failure, in a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy, and chronic congestive heart failure resulting in acute lung edema.”
Maradona had been convalescing from an operation for a hematoma on the head since November 3, in a sanatorium in the north of the capital. On November 11, he was discharged, despite the fact that his health was very delicate and he was going through a new withdrawal syndrome. He had looked bad on his 60th birthday, when he appeared after confinement due to the pandemic on the Gymnastics and Fencing field, the team he directed. His lawyer, Matías Morla, revealed that Diego I was going through a depression when they detected the bruise. “He had a strange demeanor, he was very depressed and he made comments about relatives who had passed away, that he missed them,” he said.
Maradona underwent surgery several times, including in dramatic situations in 2000 and 2004. He also had surgery on one knee and walked with extreme difficulty. Excesses and addictions were the origin of his health problems. Maradona had been over his addiction to hard drugs years ago. But he continued to consume alcohol, medicated with tranquilizers and anxiolytics. It has been a long time since he was the same. When he went to the gymnastics stadium, he no longer walked or spoke well.
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