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Copa out Freed Colombia official on mission to keep tournament
Updated: Thursday June 28, 2001 7:06 PM
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A Colombian soccer official whose kidnapping sparked calls to move the Copa America soccer tournament from Colombia was released Thursday, and is now making a last-ditch attempt to keep the event here. Martha Mejia, the sister of Hernan Mejia Campuzano, told Colombian radio earlier Thursday that she had received word from the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, that they were releasing her father. Mr. Mejia's kidnapping had helped result in a change of venue Thursday for the 2001 Copa America, the premier soccer tournament of South America. Eduardo De Luca, general secretary of the South American Football Confederation, said Thursday the tournament would be moved from Colombia to another country in the wake of the kidnapping. The change of venue was made after nine South American countries participating in the Copa America asked for the tournament to be moved because of the Mejia incident and the ongoing unrest in Colombia. The site change was requested in a letter sent by the presidents of the soccer confederations of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Hernan Mejia, however, will travel to Argentina on Friday with other Colombian soccer officials to convince event organizers not to move South America's biggest soccer event, said Alvaro Fina, the president of the Colombian Soccer Federation. Fina said a meeting had been called Saturday morning in Buenos Aires by the South American Soccer Confederation, the event organizer, to make decide whether to keep Colombia as the site of the 12-nation event.
Mejia, the vice president of the Colombian Football Federation, was kidnapped Monday outside his farmhouse on the outskirts of one of the host cities, Pereira, Colombia. "We are profoundly shocked with the news that Hernan Mejia Campuzano has been kidnapped," De Luca and Nicolas Leoz, the president of the confederation, said in a joint statement this week. The Copa America, which was scheduled to be hosted in Colombia for the first time, brings together the top teams on the continent and is the second most popular tournament to the soccer-loving fans there, behind only the World Cup. Games in Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla, Pereira and Armenia were to begin July 11 and run through July 29. The participating teams include 10 South American countries -- including soccer giants Brazil and Argentina -- and two invitees, Mexico and Canada. World governing body FIFA said on Thursday it could not intervene because it was not the federation's tournament.
"It is their competition. It is entirely up to them," FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said from FIFA headquarters in Switzerland. "We feel sorry they are in this position. [But] It is not for us to say." A change of venue is a major blow to Colombia as it tries to shed its image as a home to leftist guerrillas, death squads and drug traffickers. It has promoted the matches as a chance to show its positive face to the world. Alavor Fina, president of Colombia's Soccer Federation, on Wednesday warned that losing the tournament would be a setback for the country. "If the federations decide to withdraw their support for Colombia, it would be a very serious question... a slap in the country's face," he said. Colombian President Andreas Pastrana's call for a truce during the games follows earlier statements by guerrillas and rival rightist paramilitary militias that they would not interfere with the Copa America. Colombia's major newspapers were already calling it a lost battle. "Colombia lost the Cup" was the headline in Bogota's leading El Tiempo daily on Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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