Reds brace for hostile territory
The game is nearing the first-half intermission when the gunshots begin ringing out.
The players on the field hear them first. They abandon the contest mid-movement and begin sprinting toward the tunnel. Thousands of panicked fans duck behind their seats. Many eventually migrate onto the field and begin running in the opposite direction of the shots.
Nobody was hurt. The gunfight was taking place outside the stadium. But the relatively calm and coordinated reaction of a huge crowd suggests that this is something local supporters are used to.
This happened last August in Torreon, Mexico’s Estadio Corona, home field of Santos Laguna. Toronto FC will be playing Santos there this coming Wednesday.
To be clear, the violence is not soccer related — it’s drug related. Torreon, a middling-sized industrial city on the route into Texas, has been besieged by Mexico’s two largest drug cartels.
On Wednesday night, Toronto FC and Santos played an ill-tempered game that featured two red cards for the Mexicans, an unprompted head butt and a near brawl at the final whistle.
Afterward, both teams were keen to stress that there may be some metaphoric bad blood come next Wednesday, but none of the actual sort.
“It will be good. No, it will be good,” Santos coach Benjamin Galindo said when asked about the expected reception for the Canadians. It may be good inside the modern sports arena. It’s far from that everywhere else. In July of last year, gunmen interrupted a birthday party in Torreon and shot 35 people, killing 17. Apparently, the shooters were jailed cartel members sprung for the day by corrupt prison officials, armed with the guards’ own automatic weapons, let loose and then quietly returned to their cells. In January, police found grisly postcards — in the form of notes attached to five severed heads — scattered around the city. The bodies of the victims were never recovered. According to U.S. authorities, in the first half of 2011 Torreon had a homicide rate of 40 deaths per 100,000 population, comparable with crime-plagued cities like Johannesburg (43/100K). By comparison, Toronto’s murder rate is 1.6 per 100K.
Despite a population comparable to Calgary, Torreon had 476 murders in the first nine months of 2011 — third-most for any urban area in Mexico. The root cause of this misery is a turf war between the powerful Zetas and Sinaloa drug cartels. They have been fighting over trafficking routes that run through the state of Coahuila and into the southern United States. Since Torreon is Coahuila’s largest city, it makes for an obvious battleground. Toronto FC officials are aware of the danger, and will take extraordinary measures to guard the team and its staff. “We always take extra precautions when we go to Central America,” MLSE vice-president Tom Anselmi said Thursday. “We typically hire extra security . . . armed escorts. Our guys are well plugged in with the (Canadian Soccer Association) and Canadian political contacts in Mexico.” The team has also taken the unusual measure of extending their security umbrella to shelter jour- nalists accompanying the team, including the Star’s Dan Girard. They will stay at the team hotel and be escorted throughout the city.
Though Anselmi knows of no plans for any Toronto supporters to attend, he obliquely warned them off attending.
A couple of dozen supporters attended a game in Mexico City last fall against Pumas without incident. Torreon is a different case.
“My recommendation is to make sure you understand where you’re going and what the Canadian government is recommending,” Anselmi said.
The Canadian government recommends that you enjoy the game from your couch.
Foreign Affairs advises against non-essential travel to more than a half-dozen Mexican states, including Coahuila.
“Shootouts, attacks and illegal roadblocks may occur at any time,” a government travel advisory depressingly notes.