It wasn’t me…

The rhetoric surrounding the murder of Gonzalo Acro continued on Monday. With the Apertura now two rounds of matches old and River still yet to play a match, the barra brava ringleaders are taking it upon themselves to provide some form of distraction for the fans. At the end of last week, Adrián Rousseau, the man Acro was ‘assistant’ to, claimed Alan Schlenker, the current leader of River’s gang Los Borrachos del Tablón, had been the man giving the orders to have Acro shot.

Today, Schlenker appeared on Radio La Red’s De Una Con Niembro to protest his innocence. First calling Acro ‘A great friend,’ and going on to say that ‘I’m very sad about everything that has happened, and is happening. Gonzalo was a very good friend. To go out with, to eat with. We shared trips and private things, affections. We were friends for many years, intimately, together with some of the others guys [from Los Borrachos].’

Schlenker’s misty-eyed reminiscences of good times past then gave way to a more earnest, sincere side, though.

‘I want to make it clear that we never had a problem. I truly don’t know the motivations of those who caused the distance between us. I can say that I’m the same as I always was. I manage things the same way. I always follow the right path,’ said the hooligan leader who’s already on one very stern warning from the law courts for an entirely different set of crimes. ‘I haven’t changed at all. I’m still waiting for a reply. I believe that Adrián [Rousseau] got Gonzalo to team up with him out of convenience.’

Asked whether Rousseau’s accusations about a meeting last week with ‘ten hitmen’ had any grounds in reality, Schlenker replied, ‘Ten days ago I was skiing in [Patagonian ski resort] Bariloche. It’s a false accusation.’

He continued in the same vain for some time, protesting innocence vehemently at every opportunity. A survey of visitors to Olé‘s website asks, ‘Do you believe Alan Schlenker when he says he had nothing to do with the killing of Gonzalo Acro?’ At the time of writing, the results are 18.3% ‘Yes’, and 81.7% ‘No’.