The government of the province of Buenos Aires removed from office on Friday the head of the police operation for the league match on Thursday night between Gimnasia de La Plata and Boca Juniors, which was suspended after 9 minutes due to serious incidents in which at least one person died and eight others were injured.
As a result of the violent events, football officials also held the provincial Security Minister, Sergio Berni, responsible.
In an official statement, the provincial government also reported that all the evidence has been made available to the prosecutor in charge, while spokespersons told EFE that the "police officers identified in the videos have been removed pending analysis of the situation."
The match between Gimnasia de La Plata and Boca Juniors in the city of La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires, was suspended in the 9th minute due to the serious disturbances started outside the stadium by fans who could not enter, leading to the intervention of the Buenos Aires provincial police with rubber bullets and tear gas.
A 57-year-old man died of sudden death and non-traumatic cardiorespiratory arrest and entered the hospital lifeless, according to the provincial government, many people experienced fainting spells and others were hit by rubber bullets and injured, requiring hospitalization.
"It is unacceptable" that "thousands of residents of La Plata had to experience what they experienced and even more so, that César Regueiro lost his life during the event," said the official statement on Friday, which reported that seven of the eight people who were injured and assisted by the provincial health system have already been discharged.
"It is evident that the operation carried out was unable to provide security to those who attended," acknowledges the provincial government, which indicates that the justice system is investigating possible "over-selling of tickets."
Representatives of the ruling party and the opposition have pointed since last night to the responsibility of the provincial Security Minister, Sergio Berni, for the police operation.
However, Berni declared on Friday that he is not responsible for what happened, but rather the head and the supervisor of the security operation, after acknowledging that the "police resolved the situation in the worst way possible," and he denounced that "the organization oversold, gave away" tickets "that far exceeded the capacity of the stadium," in an interview with the channel TN.
Provincial deputies from the opposition called on Friday for the "interpellation" of Berni in the provincial legislature due to the "serious repression" in La Plata, considering that he must "take responsibility for the poor and disastrous actions of the police force he leads."