The Fatherland, Football and McCarthyism | The rude for …

Eleven years ago, when he arrived in St. Pauli to play in the Bundesliga, Carlos Zambrano would have been repudiated for what he said these days: “I want a Peru without communism and free”. The German club is a bastion of the left, of feminism and of gay pride. The Boca defender and eleven teammates of the Peruvian squad chose Keiko Fujimori as president in the second round. And they made it explicit by using scripted and McCarthyite videos. This decision has warmed the electoral thermostat. The other candidate and rural teacher, Pedro Castillo, responded with a Maradonian sentence: “Out of respect for this country, and for the honor of this country, I would like to tell you that the red-white does not stain.” Technician Ricardo Gareca and the local footballers union SAFAP were absent from the controversy. But the same did not happen with the Federation – the AFA over there – chaired by Agustin Lozano. The leader is an activist within the Alliance for Progress (APP) which supports the three-time applicant arrested, with a pending complaint for money laundering and a request from the prosecutor to 30 years in prison.

Lozano is called the dealer. In June 2020, Conmebol fined him $ 5,000 for this behavior. He and his board of the Peruvian Federation marketed tickets that did not belong to them. The leader is a political ally of César Acuña, the founder of the APP, who made a very good choice in the legislative elections of 2020. This politician founded the university club César Vallejo and is the owner of the university which carries this name.

Journalist Camila Zapata of DirectTV Peru suggested on her Twitter account that the links between Lozano, Acuña and Fujimori should be investigated further. He also considered that “the skid of footballers was organized by their representatives”. Eleven players besides Zambrano supported Keiko with very similar messages and without naming her. In some cases, like goalkeeper Pedro Gallese, it was obvious that he was reading in front of the camera: “Now there is a discourse that tries to divide and differentiate the rich and the poor, the cholos, the whites and the blacks , when what we need is to unite more The Edison Flores leaflet joined a resounding “I am not a communist, I vote for democracy”.

So nine other footballers from the selected team marched in the campaign for the daughter of the former detained president – sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity and corruption: Jeferson Farfán, André Carrillo, Paolo Hurtado, Raúl Ruidíaz, Wilmer Cartagena, Manuel Trauco, Aldo Corzo, Sergio Peña and Luis Advíncula. The latter – a former Newell winger – struggled in Spain to support Fujimori. He plays for Rayo Vallecano, a club similar to St. Pauli due to the makeup of the fans that accompany him. As anti-fascist as she is engaged in social and political campaigns. “It’s a shame you wear the red stripe, whatever it is. We are counting the days for you to stop dirtying it, ”the fan clubs of the Vallecas team, a popular district of Madrid, wrote in a statement.

The synchronized functioning of the members of the selected squad – based on appeals for patriotic and football sentiment – also saw a rebound in Peru unlike that desired. Not being unanimously supported, it opened a political divide in the establishment. Paolo Guerrero, Yoshimar Yotún and Renato Tapia – three of his main characters – did not speak. Luis Tapia, the brother of the midfielder who plays for Celta de Vigo, fired verbal bullets at Edison Flores: “Hey, how are you going to say that you have been informed and then say that you vote for ‘democracy’ ? yourself? In the orange school? Miki Torres, the one who brought Keiko toilet paper into the prison, was your history teacher for sure. Or who gave you the paper you are reading? Because more than informed, you seem to be commanded, and by the enemy. Avocado. ”In Peru, this last word can be understood as“ shame ”.

The # PonteLaCamisetaPerú hashtag campaign has sparked controversy involving other social actors beyond football. Writer and journalist Diego Trelles Paz, residing in France and activist of the New Peru space of psychologist and anthropologist Veronika Mendoza – ally of Castillo – wrote: “Keiko Fujimori managed to break the national team and to the keep away millions of his fans. They used everyone’s shirt. They stained it irreversibly. Can you imagine the Chilean team asking for the return of Pinochetism for the love of the jersey and the pride of being Chilean? “.

Fujimori has not taken off the Peruvian team’s jersey since he started the polling route. When he has a chance, he takes pictures with the red and white flag. It accompanies the symbols of the sporting homeland with an aggressive McCarthyite campaign that has been amplified by players like Zambrano. She says she didn’t coordinate with the footballers, but used their videos. The invocations to the danger of communism is a song that appears on billboards, trolls, WhatSapp messages, the press that accompanies it en bloc and the good offices of the most famous Peruvian, Mario Vargas Llosa. “Do you know that the white vote adds to communism?” or “Think about your future: no to communism” are some of the posters that shine at night in Lima, where Keiko has a huge advantage over his rival. Castillo overthrows him – for the DATUM pollster – in the rest of the country. Today, according to this sample, it would be 45.5% to 40.01% with an increasing trend.

In this climate of cold war, Peru is heading towards its elections scheduled for Sunday, June 6. The local Federation was planning criticism for the comments that its elected officials had recorded. Elkin Sotelo, from the press room, said “they were free to express their opinions” and Flaco Gareca spoke in a similar tone: “players can express themselves freely”. Three days before the second round, his team host Colombia for the Qatar World Cup qualifying rounds. The coach and his players will try to get Peru out of last place in the table it shares with Bolivia. Add only one point out of twelve possible ones. But the country needs much more than that or the bad girl mischief – the title of a novel Vargas Llosa published in 2006 – that Fujimori, the redeemer who now fights against communism, has always embodied.

The pencil master, union leader and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, has transformed into what he is not. A big stomping monster coming for private property. A dozen national team players helped shape that image for him. In a week, we will know if they won this game which is played off the field. Like never before, a group of footballers supported one of the most patriotic causes in memory. On July 28 – the bicentennial of Peruvian independence – if the surname Fujimori returns to the government palace, they will have sung the scandal.

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