The Almost Feel-Good Story of Cucuta Deportivo

Talk about a team that has seemingly come out of nowhere. Two years ago Cucuta Deportivo were living in obscurity in the second division in Colombia. Today, they are 90 minutes away from advancing to the finals of the Copa Libertadores. Cucuta laid the beat down on Boca Juniors 3-1 Thursday night in the first leg of the tournament’s competition, giving their fans reason to wear odd things on their heads and to pray on the pitch

The result is hardly a fluke. The team that has one Colombian title to its name has beaten 27-time Paraguayan champion Cerro Porteno, eight-time Mexican-champion Toluca and three-time Libertadores winner Nacional of Uruguay in its run to the semifinals.

A feel-good story, right? Well, kind of. When you read about the man responsible for the sudden rise to prominence it doesn’t feel quite as warm and tingly unless you think that drug-funded paramilitaries are warm and tingly. That man is Cucuta mayor and club owner Ramiro Suarez who has invested his personal wealth and his city’s money into make the club a success. His resume, however, is a bit spotty.

Suarez was arrested for eight months in 2004 before being cleared of charges he had ties to the drug-funded paramilitaries behind some of the worst atrocities in Colombia’s half-century civil conflict and whom the United States consider terrorists.

Those charges resurfaced a few weeks ago when paramilitary warlord Salvatore Mancuso testified that right-wing militias under his command lent money and votes to Suarez during his landslide 2003 election.

Despite the accusations, Suarez remains widely popular in Cucuta, a border town of 600,000 that benefits more from the oil wealth of neighboring Venezuela than the bureaucrats in faraway Bogota.

Cucuta will play at Boca Juniors on June 7 in the second leg. In the other semifinal first leg, Gremio beat Santos 2-0. Here are the highlights from both games. The free kick goal by Cucuta’s Blas Perez is a beauty.

Cucuta Deportivo 3-1 Boca Juniors

Gremio 2-0 Santos

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Category: South America, World Football