Lorenzo López was a Colombian referee who directed between 1986 and 1990 and who, at the time, according to the Colombian Football Federation, was suspended for life for corruption, after an investigation carried out by the current president of Difútbol, Álvaro González Alzate.
López left the country, according to him, due to threats, and settled in the United States 32 years ago. Now, he decided to break his silence and tell details of how drug trafficking became involved in soccer in the years in which he led.
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In a conversation with the YouTube channel Arbitraje de fronte, directed by the also former international judge Wílmer Barahona, López also spoke of an alleged persecution of González to remove him from the whistle panel.
López met with the bosses of the two drug cartels
López revealed that he was detained for six months for not having spoken with the “gentlemen of Cali.” These were Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, the capos of the Cali Cartel.
“I went to whistle a match between Pereira and Quindío and when I was in the dressing room, a ball boy told me that they wanted to talk to me. A guy arrived, as we said, overwhelmed, full of chains. He told me that the gentlemen from Cali wanted to talk to me, that they had to help Pereira that day. I told him not to send me anyone’s reasons, ”he explained.
López, who in 1987 whistled four classic Millonarios vs. Santa Fe, including the one that practically decided the star in favor of the blues, did not direct a single game in the first half of 1988.
Finally, someone at Dimayor told him that if he didn’t talk to the ‘gentlemen’ he wouldn’t whistle again. According to him, the judges on the day of the match in Pereira, who were from Manizales, had told Álvaro González Alzate what had happened.
“In Cali, Luis Eduardo Covaleda, another referee, picked me up and took me to speak with Miguel Rodríguez. I remember that Juan José Bellini and Sergio Santín were there. He told me that he had not sent me any reason and why I had not wanted to whistle for America. I told him that they had never named me because they knew my position on that, ”he explained.
After that talk, on the following date, they named him again: he whistled a game between América and the now-defunct Sporting de Barranquilla.
As a result, López assured that he was detained to go speak with the boss of the Medellín Cartel, Pablo Escobar Gaviria.
“I traveled to whistle a match between Medellín and Bucaramanga and when I get in the taxi, two people sit on me, side by side. They took me to a mountain and there I met Pablo Escobar. There he asks me why I don’t want to work with those from Cali. I replied that he does not work with anyone. He tells me that he doesn’t want me to twist as others have twisted and that he collaborated with them, that the referees were whistling a lot against Nacional. I told him that he did not collaborate and Escobar turned around and left, ”he said.
After that meeting, López says that he feared for his life. “The gentlemen who picked me up began to treat me badly, they covered my head and put me in a car. I thought they were going to throw me down the road. They told me that no one could find out that the ‘boss’ had spoken to me or that they were killing my family. They dropped me off two blocks from the hotel. I got into the shower and started crying. I thought about giving up arbitration, ”he recalled.
López assured that he received several death threats. One of them was on November 2, 1988, when he was appointed to replace Armando Pérez, who had just been kidnapped, in a match between Quindío and Junior, in Armenia.
“The field commissioner told me that they had made a call to the Government. That if I whistled badly and lost Quindío, I would not leave Armenia alive. I told him that I was not afraid, that I had come to whistle in the name of Armando Pérez and that he was going to try not to make a mistake. A few days ago, another referee, Luis Fernando Gil, had whistled seven, eight more minutes, in a Quindío vs. Santa Fe, who tied in that overtime and a problem arose. I was the figure of the party that day, but they broke my head with a coin. Gustavo Moreno Jaramillo took me out of the stadium that day in his car, ”he declared.
On November 15, 1989, referee Álvaro Ortega was assassinated in Medellín. During his funeral, López learned of a new threat against him. “Dimayor gave us tickets to attend Álvaro’s wake. When we were there, Jesús Díaz, who was with Ortega at the time of his death, took my arm and pulled me aside. He told me that he had a reason: ‘tell that son of López… that he is next, ”he assured.
López had a second meeting with Miguel Rodríguez, this time also with the presence of his brother, Gilberto. It was before a match between Deportivo Cali and Quindío, for which he was appointed.
“I was on the plane and suddenly a very beautiful woman passed by, who asked me if she could sit next to me. She asked me what I was doing and then she offered to take me to the hotel. We got in a Mazda 323 and when we were going there, I see that it takes to another part, towards Ciudad Jardín. She tells me that she has to carry a package. When we drive to a house and they open the garage, I see some armed men. There were Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez, who wanted to meet me because I had stood up to Pablo Escobar, ”she said.
Regarding his departure from arbitration, López assured that González Alzate, whom he called ‘Carroloco’, had orders to remove him. And he insisted on a version that he had already given to W Radio in 2012, according to which González knew who he had ordered to kill Ortega. “It was a Mr. Tamayo, from Medellín,” he assured.
The reason for removing him, according to López, turned out to be a personal issue: “I had my wife and three children, but also a relationship with a girl who worked in the Federation who Miguel Rodríguez loved very much. We had had a son and they said that I was not responsible for him. So, Rodríguez entrusted ‘Carroloco’ to get me out of arbitration ”.
Around those days, González began an investigation to detect corrupt referees. López says that he did not find anything on her. “Later I found out, from the journalist Eliécer Ballén, that González was going to remove me from arbitration for corruption. I tell Hernán Cortés, president of the Bogotá Soccer League, about the issue, because I was the only Fifa referee in Bogotá, ”he explained.
León Londoño, then president of the Federation, and Juan Guillermo Chalela, from the Arbitration Commission, continued to support López. “González was with the idea of setting up the National College of Referees and they told me not to go to a meeting that he called. Later I found out from another referee, Jorge Villamizar, that in that meeting, González said in front of everyone that he was going to remove that Lorenzo López from arbitration, ”he insisted.
Finally, López left arbitration and was threatened again. They sent him a vote with a bullet and also, through a letter that reached the weekly Nuevo Estadio. He had to leave Colombia: he traveled to the United States on a cargo plane.
“They gave me a month to leave the country. The Federation wrote a letter so that I could come to the United States. They gave me three options: continue to whistle in Venezuela, go to Mexico, where the politician I worked with in the Senate, Julio César Sánchez, was appointed ambassador, or go to the United States. The first two could not be done.
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2023-07-20 22:32:02
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