The Copa America 2024 is being held in the United States due to multiple factors that, according to South American soccer authorities, facilitate and help the organization of an event of this magnitude.
But just as there are positive aspects, there have also been facts that leave many doubts, due to robberies and insecurity in the country of opportunities.
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On this occasion, the victims were mostly fans of the Colombia national team who came to Houston to watch the debut of ‘la Tricolor’ against Paraguay on Monday, June 24. And despite having left happy for the 2-1 victory, with a great performance by James Rodriguez, hours later they were hit hard by crime.
This is not an isolated case, as before the event took place, exactly last March, journalists from Caracol Televisin had reported that they were victims of car robberies while they were working on making commercials. The director of ‘Gol Caracol’, Javier Hernndez Bonnet, told it like this:
“While we were filming the Gol Caracol commercials for Copa Amrica, in the sumptuous and secure Coral Gables, the windows of the cars were broken and lights and Ricardo Orrego’s briefcase with all documents and money were stolen.”
Fans of the Colombian national team robbed at the Copa America 2024
With the same style of robbery, breaking the windows of parked vehicles, history has repeated and this time it happened to a large number of people who thought that nothing bad was going to happen in front of the hotel. Colombian journalist Arley Durn reported the incident and, with video and evidence, described what happened:
“That in the United States they don’t steal, we say. Look, in front of the hotel where we were staying, in Houston, there is a parking lot and many of the cars, most of them Colombian, found this: there is no glass, the windows were broken.”
In the images and with a first-hand account, Durn toured the parking lot of the hotel where he and dozens of fans stayed after Colombia’s first match at the Copa Amrica 2024. And just as he could see cars and vans with their windows broken, there were also traces of the damage to vehicles that were no longer in the area.
“There are a lot of cars that woke up without glass, they were broken, and things that were inside were stolen…. The vast majority are without glass,” said Arley Durn as he toured the hotel parking lot, without revealing his name.
The incident has not been widely reported by international media, but it seems to raise a new alert for those who are or are planning to come to enjoy the event of selections of America and that just completes a week.
The commentato also said that the victims are Colombians, some of whom traveled from Colombia and rented vehicles to travel around. While many others live in the United States and came from other cities for the aforementioned debut of ‘la Tricolor’. And at the end of the video he left a phrase that leaves a lesson to warn other tourists: “In the United States they also steal!”
And for those who do not know, Colombia’s matches in the Copa America 2024 are the ones that have meant the greatest demand for tickets and tickets for the organization, after Argentina. That was reflected in the more than 67,000 people who attended the first game against the Paraguayans and that will soon be repeated in the matches against Costa Rica and Brazil, valid for Group D of the tournament.