On Thursday, a El Salvadorian judge detained five people after a stampede that killed at least 12 people at a football stadium in the capital last Saturday.
El Salvador’s judiciary indicated that it was the president of Alianza FC de San Salvador, Pedro Hernández, the club’s head of security, Edwin Abarca Ventura, financial director, Zoila Córdoba, CEO of the Edessa company that manages the Stadium from Cuscatlán, Reinaldo Avelar Contreras, and an official responsible for the keys to the enclosure, Samuel Garcia Montano.
According to the public ministry, the organizers, “having exhausted the available tickets for the game, decided to illegally sell tickets issued for previous games.”
In addition, the stadium gates did not have sufficient capacity to accommodate such a large number of spectators and “were not opened early enough to allow for an orderly and safe arrival,” the public ministry added on Twitter.
In addition to the dead, more than 100 people were injured, about 500 needed medical attention.
El Salvador’s President Naib Bukele vowed that no one would go unpunished.
“The organization’s negligence and greed, materialized by overbooking, resulted in a human avalanche that resulted in loss of life, injury and compromised the safety of participants,” he lamented.
The stadium with a capacity of 35,000 was to host the second leg of the Clausura 2023 quarter-finals between Alianza and CD FAS, the two teams with the most fans in the country.