President appeals for calm as Maradona’s mourners mob palace
Riot police were deployed in the centre of Buenos Aires yesterday and the president appealed for calm from the balcony of his palace as thousands of distraught mourners scrambled to pay their respects to Diego Maradona.
Volleys of tear gas were launched to keep the crowd back from the Casa Rosada presidential palace, where the coffin of the man who some say was the greatest footballer the world has ever seen lay in state. As many as a million people are expected to file past his body.
Maradona, who had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse for many years, died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 60 in his home just outside the capital on Thursday. His family had asked that public access to view the coffin be stopped at 4pm. The decision left thousands outside the palace despondent and led to the deployment of hundreds of riot police.
Those who managed to enter filed past the wooden casket, which was draped with the Argentine flag and two of Maradona’s legendary No 10 shirts.
Many of the wellwishers gave a fist salute to their fallen hero. Some chanted ‘‘thank you, Diego’’; others walked in shell-shocked silence. Most had red eyes full of tears. The Argentine president, Alberto Fernandez, who described the 1986 World Cup-winning captain as a man ‘‘who only gave happiness’’, arrived at the palace mid-morning by helicopter and went directly with his wife to pay his respects.
Before dawn, several members of Maradona’s extended family were seen entering the palace.
The first to arrive was his exwife, the actress Claudia Villafane, 58. She was clasping a rosary which had been sent to her by the Pope. Two of her children with the football star, Dalma and Gianinna, accompanied her. Shortly afterwards an ex-girlfriend, Veronica Ojeda, arrived. Another former girlfriend, Rocio Oliva, attempted to visit the coffin before the palace was opened to the public but was stopped by security guards. ‘‘They let everyone else go, but not me,’’ she complained to the gatheredmedia.
The coffin was later moved to a part of the palace that was not accessible to the public, even as mourners continued to queue 20 blocks away.
Maradona’s son, Diego Armando Maradona Jr, who was born after a brief relationship with a woman he met in a Naples nightclub, heard the news of his father’s death as he was recovering from Covid-19 in an Italian hospital. Only acknowledged by Maradona in 2008 after a court case, Maradona Jr, 34, is a professional beach football player. He eventually formed a strong bond with his father, who also reconciled with his mother.
The footballer’s sudden death led to outpourings of grief from many leaders of the Latin American left, who gladly welcomed as an ally the rebellious player who once declared ‘‘I hate everything from the US.’’
Maradona described the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro as a ‘‘father figure’’ and was close to Venezuela’s radical leftist leader Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013. President Nicola´s Maduro, of Venezuela, and President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba both paid tribute to the footballer.
Maradona lived in Cuba for about four years in the early 2000s, when he was supposedly being treated for drug and alcohol addiction. He took little notice of his doctors’ advice, however, and spent much of the time partying. He is understood to have fathered a further three children in Cuba.
His complex family life could lead to a battle over his estate, but Angelo Pisani, an Italian lawyer who helped Maradona fight tax evasion charges in Italy, said that he did not die a rich man.
‘‘He lived beyond his means and was very generous,’’ Pisani said. ‘‘If you want to know where his money went, talk to the people who surrounded him and used him . . . he never had more than euros 100 in his pocket.’’ – The Times