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Campeon Copa America win gives Colombians chance to celebrate
Updated: Monday July 30, 2001 6:35 PM
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Colombians poured into the streets to celebrate their win of the Copa America championship -- a rare morale boost in a country beset by civil war, kidnapping and drug trafficking. "This is the best thing that could have happened to us," said Gerardo Vargas, 24, a store clerk at a shopping mall who was tossing flour on a main avenue at passers-by. "This makes us proud to be Colombian." One minute, the streets of this capital of 7 million were empty as Bogotanos were glued to the TV sets, where they watched their team beat Mexico 1-0 Sunday to take the main soccer tournament of the Americas. The next minute, the streets were filled with a cacophony of car horns and people screaming at the top of their lungs after the final whistle blew. Colombians danced in the streets and sang the national anthem as riot police, deployed to prevent things from getting out of hand, looked on. As the party wore on, streets turned white as celebrants threw handfuls of flour -- a common ritual in Colombia. For this South American nation, winning the Copa America was a double victory. Not only did it win the final, it hosted the 18-day event without a single hitch -- despite fears of violence and kidnappings that nearly prompted Latin American soccer officials to yank the event from Colombia. "We demonstrated that we can live in peace and that we want to live in peace," said President Andres Pastrana, who turned the event into a symbol of the nation's pride and self-esteem. In the weeks leading up to the tournament, Colombians endured a seesaw battle to host the event. After bombs exploded in Bogota, Cali and Medellin -- Colombia's three biggest cities and venues for the Copa America -- last spring, participating teams began expressing doubts that Colombia was capable of hosting the event. The country is embroiled in a 37-year civil war involving leftist rebels, rightist paramilitaries and the U.S.-backed military. With the fate of the tournament in doubt, Pastrana traveled to Paraguay to convince soccer officials that Colombia could safely hold the cup despite the world's highest kidnapping rate and rampant crime from armed groups and drug traffickers. Pastrana promised a massive security presence, including 20,000 police, sharpshooters and bomb-sniffing dogs. Latin American soccer officials ratified Colombia as the host. Soon after, however, it was in doubt once again when the country's largest leftist rebel army kidnapped a top-ranking Colombian soccer official from a car. Pastrana stepped up once again, arguing that taking away the tournament would be giving a green light to terrorism. The soccer official, Hernan Mejia, was freed three days later and even traveled to Argentina to urge the South American soccer confederation to keep the tournament in Colombia. The soccer confederation voted to suspend the tournament for a year, allowing Colombia to host it in 2002, but days later backtracked and agreed to hold the event in Colombia as originally scheduled. Little to celebrate as Copa endsColombians danced with joy, politicians and soccer officials patted each other on the back and the rest of the football world asked why they bothered as the Copa America ended on Sunday. Colombia's first Copa America title, achieved with a 1-0 win over a Mexican team that had two players and their coach shown the red card, sent thousands of people streaming on to the streets of the country's main cities on Sunday night. But for other admirers of South American football there was little to smile about following a tournament which many suspect was held purely for the benefit of sponsors and Colombian politicians. The decision to cram the competition into the middle of the South American World Cup qualifying contest -- in which the continent's 10 nations play each other twice over an 18-month period -- led most countries to field experimental teams. The competition was therefore greatly devalued even before the farcical buildup in which the South American Football Confederation (CSF) was unable to decide whether Colombia was safe enough to hold the tournament. The CSF twice ratified Colombia as hosts, then decided to move the tournament elsewhere, then reinstated Colombia but postponed the contest until next year, before finally deciding to go ahead in Colombia as planned at just six days' notice. Pulled out Argentina, who had disbanded their team, pulled out altogether. As Argentina Football Association president Julio Grondona said pointedly: "We don't tend to form a team in three days." Canada, due to take part as guests, also withdrew. Costa Rica and Honduras agreed to take part, but one official admitted that Tahiti could have played if they had asked. Despite all these problems, officials declared the Copa a roaring success, simply on the basis that it passed off without any major security scares. "I want to congratulate Colombia for its efforts .. and also President [Andres] Pastrana for his courage in organizing the tournament which, despite some difficulties, was successful," said FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Lima on Friday. "Naturally, the decisions about whether to play or not affected the tournament but the sport was stronger than those challenges," he said. "The Copa America is a tournament that in my opinion has been very successful and has attracted many people." Pastrana himself said: "We feel proud to have organized the best Copa America in history. This is a triumph for all Colombians and shows that when a country wants something, it can get it with faith and unity." Diego Maradona, who watched the final at the invitation of the CSF, saw things from a different perspective. "I've come simply to show that the Argentine players have nothing to do with the fact that the Argentine team is not here," he said. Directors to blame "The directors and the politicians are to blame... Without players, there are no directors." The CSF has not discussed how to restore the prestige of the competition and is already concentrating its efforts on making the next Copa -- to be held in Peru in 2003 -- bigger rather than better. CSF president Nicolas Leoz said last week that his dream was for the competition to include all the countries of the American continent. The CSF provided further evidence of its preference for quantity over quality on Sunday when it staged several games in the Copa Mercosur -- a made-for-television competition featuring 20 of the continent's biggest clubs -- on the same day as its showpiece event in Bogota. And there was a full program of domestic football in Mexico despite the appearance of the national team in the final. But even Colombia's celebrations could be short-lived. The team is struggling to qualify for the World Cup and meets Peru at home in two weeks, desperately needing a win to put their campaign back on track.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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