The start of the Copa Libertadores It comes to River at a sensitive moment from an emotional and football perspective. after the fall with Huracán on a forgettable Friday night in Parque Patricios. The team lost an official undefeated 17 games, fell for the first time this year and showed a diluted image that complicated its plans in the Professional League Cup. In this context, the team and the coaching staff began a long and difficult journey this Sunday to be able to play the first game of Group H against Deportivo Táchira in Venezuela on Tuesday, starting at 9:30 p.m., a country that prohibited Argentine planes from crossing local airspace. .
Today at 9 in the morning the charter flight that will take the millionaire delegation from Ezeiza to Cúcuta, Colombia left. It is a journey of about 8 hours that will leave River in that city near the border with Venezuela, so, from there, They will have to travel by land by bus to San Cristóbal, Táchira. Despite being just over 50 kilometers, it is a winding mountain road that will require another hour and a half of travel until you reach the Lidotel, where you will spend three nights from Sunday to Wednesday.
The fact is that, due to the extensive journey to get to Táchira, the decision of the coaching staff was to travel this Sunday, stay at the Lidotel hotel, have a last practice on Monday in a training field that has not yet been defined (they are all made of synthetic grass ), play on Tuesday night and return on Wednesday morning with the same travel route: land route to Cúcuta and, from there, by direct charter to Buenos Aires at 3:00 p.m. Argentine time. Three nights in Venezuelan territory to debut in the Cup.
What is the reason for this decision by Venezuela that directly affects River? It is one more chapter in the tension between the government of Javier Milei and that of Nicolás Maduro. On March 12 of this month, the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, referred to the situation: “I confirm that Argentina initiated diplomatic actions against Venezuela, led by Maduro, after its decision to prohibit the use of airspace by aircraft. Argentina with the damage that this entails for our country. This is part of a retaliation that Venezuela took because Argentina accepted the order to confiscate the Emtrasur plane linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran. “Argentina is not going to allow itself to be extorted by friends of terrorism.”
From Venezuela, as they justified, the measure is linked to what happened with the Emtrasur plane that was detained in June 2022 in Argentina due to problems with the declaration of its crew, of Iranian origin. The aircraft was inactive by order of Justice and stranded at Aeroparque for months. Meanwhile, in February he left for the United States, since that country had made a confiscation request, stating that it was used for covert operations.
The Venezuelan decision to cancel flights affects the operations of Aerolíneas Argentinas on its routes to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Miami and Punta Cana and radically changed River’s plans, which intended to travel on a direct charter flight to San Cristóbal and could not get a plane with Uruguayan, Peruvian or Brazilian registration to do it. “They stole our Emtrasur plane. Milei’s bandit stole the plane from Venezuela. Javier Milei, the hero of the extreme right of surnames, that hero of the extreme right of surnames stole a large plane from Venezuela, from you Conviasa workers. Crazy Milei, is he crazy or is he crazy or both at the same time? Ah, but he stole a plane from Venezuela,” said Maduro at the time, who took the drastic measure.
In this context, River will begin its path in the Copa Libertadores with an extensive and complex journey for which coach Martín Demichelis named 25 players with only one change compared to the roster that has just fallen with Huracán: he added Lucas Lavagnino as the third goalkeeper. and freed Agustín Ruberto, who has just recovered from dengue. The coach intends to make the best available for the cup debut, knowing that he will then play on Sunday against Rosario Central at the Monumental for the penultimate date of Zone A of the League Cup.