This was no fight to the death, but a friendly football game in Villavicencio prison, organized in conjunction with celebrations of the Day of the Virgin Our Lady of Mercy.
Although the paramilitaries won the game at 3-1, the team representing the Colombia courtyard won the Olympics overall, crushing runners-up, the Santander courtyard.
“The attitude and the way they took the meeting showed the community that can live in peace,” said Héctor Camacho, coordinator of the celebration which will run until 24 September, which is the day dedicated to religious celebrations, during which inmates are permitted to have their families visit.
The winners were the ‘insiders’, as the inmates of Santander courtyard are called, where the guerrillas are being held.
However, the ‘outsiders’, or the paramilitaries, detained for other crimes in the Colombia courtyard, won the most popular sport: soccer.
A total of six sports were part of the Prison Olympics: basketball, football, microfootball, volleyball, chess and table tennis.
And it was not just for the men: Of the 94 women incarcerated in Villavicencio prison, 50 participated in basketball, volleyball and minisoccer matches. Others wore dazzling costumes in the parade that opened the games, representing the Orinoco, Pacific, Caribbean and Andean regions of Colombia.
Chess champion Salvador Suarez Retende was present to do the honors and extinguish the Olympic flame as the event drew to a close.
