They were involved in conflicts before the Libertadores match

The arrest in the act of 21 Uruguayans was converted into preventive by the Rio Courts in the custody hearings held this Friday (25). The decision was made due to their involvement in the conflicts that occurred on Wednesday (23) in Recreio, in the west of Rio, on the afternoon of the day of the first match of the Copa Libertadores da América semifinal, between Botafogo and Peñarol. That day, the Brazilian team won 5×0.

According to the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice (TJRJ), only one of the detainees, Richard Andreas Soler Pereira, was released. For others, arrest in the act was transformed into preventive arrest. “The judges who held the hearings highlighted, in their decisions, that the majority of those detained were armed with sticks and were arrested in the act by the police,” said the TJRJ in a statement.

The court also reported that the Uruguayans who were arrested are Alvaro Marcelo Garin, Nikleson Cabrera, Michael Nicols, Federico Gonzales, Felipe Pedrini, Luís Antonio Cursio, Santiago Zapata, Jorge Lucio da Silva Limas, Carlos Ramiro Tambrideguy Lara, Lautaro Machado Raimondi, Santiago Facundo, Sacramento Rodriguez, José Telechea, Roy Martinez, Esteban Emanuel Silveira Sena, Franco Ezequiel Berriel Merlo, Carlos Francisco Sauco, Anthony Alexis Rosa Balles, Ezequiel Rodrigues and Cesar Daniel Camurati Alvarez.

After the conflicts in Recreio, which saw reports of theft, fires on buses and direct confrontation with the Military Police (PM), more than 200 Peñarol fans were arrested and taken to the Police City, in the Jacaré neighborhood, in the north of the city. River.

On the day, the PM reported that, at the moment when widespread confusion began on the beachfront, agents from the Battalion Specialized in Stadium Policing (BEPE) were carrying out preventive patrol in the region and were alerted to the theft of a cell phone in a commercial establishment in location. The device would have been found with one of the group members. Initially the case was taken to the 16th Police Station, in Barra da Tijuca, a neighborhood neighboring Recreio.

The 22 Uruguayans detained were charged with various crimes, such as illegal possession of a firearm, theft, bodily harm, theft, qualified damage, fire, criminal association, resistance, disobedience, contempt, feud, racial insult, corruption of minors and the article 201 of the Fan Statute, for crimes against peace in sport.

According to the PM, Peñarol fans started the chaos with a group of people on the beach, carried out looting, vandalized commercial establishments and vehicles in the region. A pistol was seized by police.

According to the Civil Police, another 330 Uruguayans will also respond under article 201 of the Fan Statute. The procedures will be sent to the Special Court for Fans and Major Events. During the investigation, images published in the press and on social networks were analyzed, and interviews were held in order to corroborate the identification and accountability of the perpetrators.

In an interview at Cidade da Policia, still on Wednesday, the Secretary of Security of Rio de Janeiro, Victor Santos, admitted that there was a failure in planning the reception and monitoring of Peñarol fans.

“Public safety is my responsibility. And what I have to do now is look inside and review the entire process, see where there were failures and try to correct them. Lessons learned. Public security is not a mathematical equation, even though it has some predictability, sometimes it gets out of control and this kind of thing happens”, said Victor Santos.

In the secretary’s view, the problems were caused by fans who were on three “stray” buses, a term used for those who did not have prior notice of their trip to the Uruguayan Consulate. Santos added that it will be determined whether the “communication failure” was the responsibility of Peñarol, the fans or the consulate for the secretariat.

“But that doesn’t take away our responsibility, because as soon as they arrived at the edge of Recreio, we had an obligation to know about the past that this crowd had. Once in Copacabana, a Flamengo fan lost his life because of this crowd. Given all this history, we failed to underestimate the number of police officers there, thinking that they could act and contain the three buses that were stopped on the shore”, he added.

After the clashes, the police force was reinforced for the game that took place at night between Botafogo and Peñarol, at the Nilton Santos Stadium, Engenhão, in the north of Rio.