Peru soccer players beaten by fans after defeat to Argentine club

[Judi Lynn]

Peru soccer players beaten by fans after defeat to Argentine club

Source: Reuters - Thu, 5 Feb 2015 23:12 GMT

LIMA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Soccer fans in Peru sore over their club Alianza Lima's 4-0 loss to Argentina's Huracan attacked their own team on Thursday, wounding two top players and prompting rumors they might quit.

The supporters broke into the club's Alejandro Villanueva stadium in the Peruvian capital carrying sticks, witnesses said on local broadcaster RPP.

Newspaper El Comercio reported that about 60 fans burst into the locker room ahead of a scheduled practice, beating several players and pointing a gun at two of them.

The mob left graffiti on the exterior of the stadium urging Uruguayan coach Guillermo Sanguinetti to leave the team.

More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20150205231002-351j1/

[Fuzzy Slipper]

1. Are Peruvians known to be particularly prone to violence

Over inconsequential things or is this out of character?

It has been speculated that George Zimmerman's outbursts could be a result of his Afro-Peruvian heritage.

I don't put much stock in such things but I've never really studied it either.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Don't know! Hope someone can shed some light on this.

As for Zimmerman, he would probably be the same kind of critter no matter where his parents originated. I did notice his snotty mother at court seemed incredibly ill-tempered, herself.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. No, its more about the misplaced passion for the game

Peru is on the lower end of the scale of murder rates in latin America.

[forest444]

3. My impression is that Latin America's violence problem is more socioeconomic in nature than racial

Last edited Sat Feb 7, 2015, 12:40 AM - Edit history (1)

When you look at Latin American capitals and other large cities (5 million +), the ones with severe crime and domestic violence problems also have abysmal income distribution problems and visibly stark divides in living standards from district to district. This is true of all big cities in the region except those in the southern South American cone (Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay) - but in few cases is the contrast between the good and bad areas as sharp as it is in Lima, Peru.

There is also a strong racial component in all these cases, to be sure, in that the darkness of one's skin in Latin America closely correlates to the chances of living in squalid, crime-ridden areas - and this apartheid situation applies to anyone who isn't white, be they Mestizos (people who are at least half-Native) and Mulattos (people who are at least half-Black). A White Peruvian generally cares little whether he's looking at an Afro-Peruvian or a Cholo, as Mestizos and full-blooded Amerindians are called; full-blooded Natives and Negroes fare the worst, as you can imagine. Suffice it to say that growing up like that probably affects all kinds of interactions - at sporting events, at home, you name it.

Finally, poverty and violence in Latin America go very much together in large metro areas; but much less so in small towns and medium cities, which in Latin America are generally much safer than the large metropolises - even when they are much poorer, or with much darker-skinned demographics, than the big metro areas.

All that said, I'd like to think that, over time, this situation is getting better in most Latin American countries. There are ups and downs, of course, but the trend over the decades is mostly positive. I hope I'm not wrong about that.