On November 20, 2022, Instituto completed the return to the highest division of Argentine soccer after 16 years. The 1-1 draw against Estudiantes de Caseros, in Alta Córdoba, was the corollary of a great season in the First National championship, which concluded an enviable 20-game losing streak at home.
While the red-and-white fans gave free rein to their joy and celebrated the long-awaited promotion, in the security organizations of the province there were grim gestures and concern for another undefeated “Glory”: the police reports had reported incidents in all the matches that the red-and-white cast starred on their court in 2022.
Not even at the time of the festivities was there harmony. “In the two popular ones, different songs are sung and the truth is that one does not know who to follow. Sometimes it seems that there were locals and visitors”, they point out, disenchanted, members and ‘neutral’ fans of the club. The reference focuses on ‘Los Capangas’ and ‘Los Ranchos’, the two bars that for more than a decade have kept the entire albirroja community and the neighborhood of one of the most traditional neighborhoods in the north of the city on edge.
This separate match, which is played in the stands, and which has the north and south ends of the Juan Domingo Perón Stadium as reference points, records numerous violent antecedents: insults, threats, handshakes, street fights, shootings and even a pitched battle at the out of a nightclub on the Costanera, in December 2012, which ended with one of its protagonists seriously injured by a gunshot.
LAST EPISODE. The Provincial Police reported on their social networks the discovery of a weapon before the Instituto-Sarmiento match. /// PHOTO: CEDOC PROFILE
summit in central
“It is an issue that worries us and that occupies us,” says Marcelo Frossasco, head of the Sports Safety Council of the Province of Córdoba (Cosedepro), when talking about the Institute case. The official was one of the attendees at the summit that was held on Thursday at midmorning at the Police Station, where the president of the red-and-white club, Juan Manuel Cavagliatto, and authorities from the Directorate of Planning and Preventive Design were also present. “All parties agree on the need to combine criteria and take the necessary measures so that these incidents end as soon as possible. It was a very productive meeting, where good decisions were made”, pointed out Frossasco.
“We, as a government, will always be next to the families, not the violent ones” (Marcelo Frossasco, head of Cosedepro).
Two recent episodes precipitated the conclave at the police headquarters. Fifteen days ago, during the friendly match against Colón de Santa Fe, there were fights between ‘Los Capangas’ and ‘Los Ranchos’ in the vicinity and in the stands of the Kempes Stadium, although no arrests were reported. A week later, before Sarmiento’s debut in the Professional League Tournament, a police search found a weapon and alcoholic beverages in a bathroom in the southern popular sector. This incident was reported to Justice by the authorities of the Institute; former commissioner José Francisco Funes, head of security for the entity; and Chief Commissioner Antonio Urquiza, who was in charge of the police operation.
FROSSASCO. The head of Cosedepro had a “very productive” meeting that he held with police authorities and white-haired leaders. /// PHOTO: FINO PIZARRO
In the meeting that took place during the week in the Colón and Santa Fe building, Cavagliatto promised to increase the number of security cameras that work on the red-and-white stage to 180 and, if necessary, add more names to the list that the club raised to the authorities, in exercise of the right of admission.
For its part, the Police ratified its decision to only authorize the entry of flags that did not exceed the 2×1 measure and musical instruments (“trumpets, drums and bass drums, previously registered with the data of their bearer and managerial authorization”, according to specified) in the games that dispute ‘the Glory’.
The definition on the number of people who affected security in next Sunday’s commitment against Hurricane was pending. In the first game of the year there were 370, between police and private.
CAVAGLIATE. The president of the Institute urged the dissident factions to put an end to ‘the crack’ that divides the popular team from the albirrojo stadium. /// PHOTO: CEDOC PROFILE
the red white crack
Those who have access to the ins and outs of the red-and-white club are located in “the times of the presidency of Juan Carlos Barrera”, the period 2008-2013, the first differences between the two dissidents in the stands.
They link ‘Los Ranchos’ with the old ‘Barra de La Gloria’ and its historical leader, the late ‘Negro Fabián’. “They are the heaviest,” they say about the faction that originates from Villa El Nylonon. This is the same group that in May 2012 ambushed the group that was transporting the soccer team that was returning from playing with Boca Unidos in Corrientes, seriously destroyed the vehicle and threatened the coaching staff and the squad of players, including a youthful Paulo Dybala: “There are bullets for everyone”.
They recognize ‘Los Capangas’ as the new guard, initially a mix of ‘chetitos’ and ‘snotty assholes’, which was adding followers and gaining space in subsequent conductions, successively led by Daniel Peralta, Ricardo Morelatto, Gastón Defagot and Roberto Castoldi. “There is everything there. Most of them are kids from the neighborhood; workers, not professional bars ”, they point out.
‘Los Capangas’ have a presence on social networks, good friends with the leaders of the Belgrano fans (the former and the current ones) and are also regulars at the games that the Institute plays for the National Basketball League, both in the Ángel Sandrín Stadium as in other fields in the country. “From Barrera to here, they have always been the most protected,” say cloth connoisseurs.
QUESTION OF STATE. An eloquent fact: the Police reported incidents in all the matches that Instituto played as a local since 2022. /// PHOTO: TWITTER LEONARDO GUEVARA
“It is not that they make a few pesos. Here at stake are street sales, bus trips, parking lots on game days and recitals, the bracelets that they sell to people so they can enter the pitch… A lot of money”, they explain about the benefits of be rude.
When he took over the presidency, on May 3, 2021, Cavagliatto inherited an important debt, a call from creditors and also a conflict that had long since split the popular red-and-white in two.
A statement published on the club’s networks, on March 3, 2022, reports a failed mediation attempt by the current management: “We publish this so that the fans are not confused. In the bars, the conflict continues as always, they tried to reach an agreement and it was not prepared. Finally, the ‘Los Ranchos’ bar will go to the popular south and ‘Los Capangas’, to the popular north. Let the Monumental be a party, despite the fact that this news is something that nobody wants, what matters most is the Institute”. The controversial former police chief Ramón Frías, owner of a security company that advises the Institute and Workshops, was the one who officiated as ‘Celestino’ that time.
BARRIER. The president who governed the Institute between 2008 and 2013. During his management, problems began between the red-and-white bars. /// PHOTO: CEDOC PROFILE
Clean slate
“We agreed not to do any backward analysis and to look forward. Open dialogue, not blame each other and work together”. Almost as if in passing, Frossasco, the head of Cosedepro, added this precision about the scope of the meeting last Thursday. The allusion seems to cover actions and omissions; own and others, distant and not so much. In that sentence of the official, you may find an explanation for facts that at the time seemed taken out of context, taking into account the successful moment of Albirrojo. For example, the banner against the royal leadership that was made in the Sandrín before the basketball duel against Boca. Or the flare that was thrown during a match against Temperley and that injured a minor, a fact that led to the suspension of part of the South Stand and the ban on the entry of fireworks. Both episodes happened last year.
“If they do not understand that they must unite, they will have to pay the consequences, we are not going to be painted here” (Juan Manuel Cavagliatto, president of the Institute).
After the recent incidents that take place in the friendly Instituto-Colón, in the run-up to the return of ‘la Gloria’ to the AFA First Division, Cavagliatto spoke about the inmate of the bars in the program ‘De Contragolpe’, which is Issued by Radio Impacto. “I am not going to get tired of always saying the same thing: at the Institute we realized that all together we could achieve what will be accomplished and many other things,” said the manager. “They need to realize it, no more; And if they don’t realize it, they will have to pay the consequences, because painted here we will not be. We will have to see in what way or how they come together, ”he added defiantly.
“I see him very determined, with the firmness that the moment warrants. I think he is very clear about the scope of the situation, “said Frossasco about the attitude of the current red-and-white boss. “Instituto is the club in Córdoba that takes the most women and children to sports events and that must be preserved. We, from the government, will always be next to the families and not to the violent ones”, concluded the official.
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