Following last Sunday’s bomb threat a the Saprissa stadium, security at the Estadio Nacional for the Mexico – Costa Rica game as tight. In fact, fans were being asked to arrive at the stadium earlier than normal, as two security rings were set up to ensure safety for the fans and players.
The game was practically sold out. The stadium was jam-packed, fans who couldn’t get in lived the action outside. In homes, bars and anywhere there was a screen, be it a television, tablet, smartphone, what have you, people were glued to the game, an entertaining game, though the national team didn’t come up with the anticipated win.
The game was so important to some, especially the five men that took a shot at getting in by impersonating officials of the president’s security detail.
In fact, they almost made it all the way in, got caught close to the presidential box, detected by the real Unidad de Protección Presidencial (Presidential Protection Unit), on hand to provide security to President Luis Guillermo Solis, who attended the game with the other 35,000 fans.
The impersonation and discovery was confirmed by the press office of the national intelligence police, the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad Nacional (DIS).
Once apprehended, the men admitted that they were used to entering different stadiums by circumventing security.
The men got to see (or at least hear) the game from inside of a Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) holding cell.
Preliminary information details that the men, dressed in similar fashion, suit and tie used by the presidential escorts, will be prosecuted for the crime of impersonation (suplantación de identidad in Spanish).
Mariano Figueres, director of the DIS, said that “fortunately it was a situation that at no time put the event at risk, as well as the security of President Solís.”
