Tragedy ·
The 1985 Killing of Racing Supporter Daniel Souto
Infobae reported that Boca’s La Doce opened fire on Racing supporters near the Bombonera. Souto, 20, was killed; the only reported detainee was released a year later for lack of evidence.
Daniel Souto, a 20-year-old Racing supporter, was killed on December 3, 1985, after a match against Banfield at Boca Juniors’ stadium. According to a 2022 account in Infobae, La Doce, Boca’s barra brava, ambushed Racing supporters with gunfire near the Bombonera. Souto was killed in the shooting.
The attack came during a bitter period between La Doce and Racing’s barra brava, La Guardia Imperial. Infobae traced one confrontation to April 24, 1983, when Boca hosted Racing. After the match, it reported, La Doce ambushed La Guardia Imperial beside the railway tracks behind the stadium. About a dozen Racing supporters suffered knife wounds and received emergency treatment at Argerich Hospital.
When the clubs met again at the Bombonera on August 3, a flare thrown from an upper tier toward the Racing section struck Roberto Basile in the neck and killed him shortly before kickoff. The match went ahead. Federal Police chiefs said at the time that suspending it could have generated more violence and that continuing would help control the crowd’s departure. Boca supporters were held for 45 minutes while Racing supporters left.
Infobae reported that Roberto Horacio Caamaño and Miguel Eliseo Herrera received two-year suspended sentences in 1985 for negligent homicide in Basile’s death. Prosecutors had sought 15-year sentences for intentional homicide.
Souto’s killing later that year had a different, limited legal outcome in the account. Infobae reported that only one person was detained: Jorge López, known as Coqui, whom it identified as a lower-ranking member of La Doce. He spent a year in custody before being released for lack of evidence.