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Born in Villa Fiorito, a humble neighborhood in the city of Buenos Aires by Lomas de Zamora, Argentine idol Diego Armando Maradona, who passed away this Wednesday at the age of 60, has never forgotten his origins. “I grew up in a private neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Without electricity, water, telephone“he said ironically in 2004, in one of his most memorable lines.
Perhaps this is why, despite the fortunes he has been able to earn as a player, he has always spoken politically on the side of the poor, against inequalities and in favor of social justice.
That’s what, off the pitch, Diego has always shown himself how a class conscious man, committed to socialist ideas and, in Argentina, to Peronism, with all its complexities.
The idol ideas, which also provoke rejection in conservative sectors, were not only known for their own statements, but were marked on the skin. In the right arm, the Argentine worn and used to proudly display a tattoo of the leader of the Cuban revolution, also the Argentine Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.
But the island was also united by a deep friendship with Fidel Castro, who welcomed him to his country for health care between 2000 and 2005.
Fate would have killed him on the same day as his “commander”, as Maradona called Castro, who died on 25 November 2016.
Maradona and the socialism of the 21st century
His political stance also brought him closer to other Latin American leaders, such as former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, Bolivian leader Evo Morales, former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or his compatriots Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Diego Armando’s passionate support for the leaders of so-called 21st century socialism led him to share a train ride with Chávez and Morales, in 2005, when the remembered ‘contra summit’ or III Summit was held in the city of Mar del Plata de los Pueblos, where the free trade agreement, known as the FTAA, which excluded Cuba was rejected.
That event was organized in opposition to the Summit of the Americas, which was attended by former US President George Bush. “Everything Fidel and Chávez will do will be for me the best in this world that Bush’s killer, the devil, wants to rule, as the teacher told him.“, then underlined a politically leftist Maradona.
After Chávez’s death, the Argentine maintained his relationship with the Bolivarian government of Venezuela through Nicolás Maduro, to whom he even offered help to cope with the crisis.
“Diego helped us with secret things, to bring food for the people of Venezuela, I can confess today “the Venezuelan head of state revealed on Wednesday in an act in which he was distressed by the news.
The “brothers” Evo and Diego
With Evo Morales, the bond went beyond politics and extended to sport. In 2008, the former world champion in Mexico 1986 played a match at the La Paz Olympic Stadium to demand that FIFA’s ban on playing international matches at more than 2,750 meters above sea level be lifted.
In sports, he has always been critical of the leadership of the highest governing body for football in the world. His allegations of corruption at the top of the body had their correlation when the “FIFA gate” scandal broke out, for which several former administrators were convicted.
In November last year, the star expressly rejected the coup in Bolivia from her social networks. And the former president regretted the death of his “brother” on Wednesday, as he viewed it from his Twitter account.
Always Peronist
In Argentina, where he is adored mainly for having led the Albiceleste national team to its maximum consecration, Maradona’s commitment to progressivism arouses repulsion in some sectors of the right, especially anti-Peronism, even if there are those who prefer to separate his position ideological from that sports.
“I have been, am and will always be a Peronist“was one of the last political phrases of the former gymnastics and fencing coach La Plata, on the occasion of the Loyalty Day that the movement celebrates every 17 October.
His constant support for Cristina Kirchner and current president Alberto Fernández – with whom he met in December, shortly after taking office -, as well as harsh criticism of former president Mauricio Macri, have increased his love and hate on both sides of the call. ‘crack’ that divides the Argentines.
Fernández decreed three days of mourning this Wednesday and made the Casa Rosada available to the massive wake of Argentina’s greatest sports idol to be held there, and the city of Naples, Italy, where fans held a vigil to fire the ‘king’.
Emmanuel Gentile
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