Rafael Di Zeo Faces Lifetime Ban from Stadiums: An Unprecedented Move by National Security

Rafael Di Zeo, head of the Boca bar, had left the list and admission in 2023 (Luciano González)

The move is strong: the Ministry of National Security wants Rafael Di Zeo off the court forever. Just as it reads. For this reason, in the Official Gazette that will be published tomorrow, his name will appear in print in the resolution that will impose the right of admission for 58 Boca bars, but with an addition: the impediment to entering the stadiums is for time. indeterminate. It is the first time in Argentina that this figure is used: Patricia Bullrich will explain it at a press conference. He had already imposed a ban on Di Zeo during the presidency of Mauricio Macri, when he took power away from the clubs and the Executive took charge of restricting access to those he considered undesirable and who had a judicial process. But then he was sanctioned for four years, a measure that was renewed during Alberto Fernández’s term as president until the leader of La Doce ended up acquitted in the two cases he had in Court: as the instigator of a double homicide in the prison in 2013 and for aggravated concealment. As soon as that happened, he was able to return to the courts, in April 2023. But now, Bullrich and the director of Sports Security of the Nation, Franco Berlin, are going for more: since they consider him a repeat offender, they apply an unprecedented sanction to him.

“The indeterminate period can be three months or for life. Well, we consider this second option because with what happened the other day on Route 9 in the run-up to the semifinal against Estudiantes, it is clear that his behavior has not changed. They were all in a bus with weapons loaded with an incredible amount of ammunition and with filed numbers, hidden so as not to be located by the forces and ready to be used. He and other people already had the right of admission and we thought they had learned that football should be a party and not a war. But it seems not, it is something repetitive and then the maximum sanction must be applied directly,” Berlin tells Infobae.

There are 58 Boca bars that will have the right of admission

The measure will bring about a judicial response from Di Zeo, since his lawyer Diego Storto stated that it is illegal because he is charged and not prosecuted, and the presumption of innocence should apply to all people equally, regardless of their last name. Furthermore, the figure that was applied divides waters in Courts. The Río Segundo prosecutor, Patricia Baulies, charged them all with illegal possession of a shared firearm, which carries a penalty of one to six years in prison. A good part of the library says that it is impossible for 58 people to be the owners of the weapons and that it will have to discover who they belong to to determine responsibility. Others assure that if no one takes responsibility, the crime will happen to the rest. It will be seen.

For now, Di Zeo is expected to present a precautionary claim in the national justice system while he tries to prove his innocence in the Córdoba courts. Maybe in the Ministry they say that they will not back down. “During Patricia’s administration in the Macri government, all the Boca members went to court with the same argument and lost. We don’t see why the magistrates would change their minds now,” they argue optimistically. And regarding the statements by the leader of La Doce that everything was set up to harm him, the one who responds is Berlin. “It’s nonsense. He was not prevented from entering any stadium and came neatly, so there were no reasons to put any restrictions on him. What’s more, he led the team in the Superclásico that was played in Córdoba without problems. Whether his name is Di Zeo or Álvarez doesn’t matter to us. The issue is that against Estudiantes, in the search that we carried out with the Gendarmerie and the Provincial Police, that arsenal appeared. And the Safe Transfer program that we implemented is to prevent that from happening. Look if they came by with weapons and used them, it would have been a disaster. In addition, we have had more than 78 admissions from different teams in this time and from Boca it is the first time. “If the bus was clean, nothing would have happened.”

How could Di Zeo get out of this situation? Proving his innocence in the Río Segundo prosecutor’s office. The problem is that the first version that two bars had claimed ownership of the weapons was discarded. Because although they did that before the Police in the middle of the search and after Di Zeo argued strongly with two representatives of Moreno’s group who were the ones who took over that bus, in court they changed his version. And what counts for Justice is what is said before a prosecutor. That is why for now the crime of possession remains for the 58 occupants of the bus.

And not only the historical boss went there. He was also accompanied by his right-hand man, Carlos Sebastián Maciel, alias Skeletor, another who had already had the right of admission due to various causes of violence in football and ticket reselling. But the list of passengers finds other curiosities, since there are several who at some point were restricted from going to the stadiums with measures of between six months and two years. And there are some strange cases like that of Patricio Arizaga. Who is it? Nicknamed Pachi, he was a player for Estudiantes de La Plata and several Ascenso teams, later he was an assistant to Daniel el Profe Córdoba when he led Pincha and was always associated with the León bar. But this time he was traveling with La Doce. Someone who knows the essence of that world assures that Pachi was always a Boca fan and established a relationship with Di Zeo a long time ago, which is why he was on that bus.

Rafael Di Zeo with part of “La 12”

Furthermore, several of the 58 who were searched had already had the right of admission at other times. In that group are Osvaldo Coria, Gabriel Rosivar, Jorge Garnica, Maximiliano Verón and former San Telmo soccer player Franco Palavecino Bataglia, all members of the Moreno, Hurlingham and La Matanza de la barra factions.

2024-05-06 21:57:12
#Rafael #Zeo #Boca #fans #banned #field #indefinite #period #time #footballers #roster