An evangelical pastor preaches to more than half a million people at the city’s central park, for free. Under thousands upon thousands of frantic and skeptical stares, he promises -he knows- that this country will soon be blessed with peace and prosperity. The following day, Sunday, three soccer fans are murdered at different matches. Violence between gangs of opposite teams.
Policemen go after evidence, lagging behind. The State claims it is a tragedy, quickly dismissing it as three isolated incidents. More: Punitive measures for the team clubs, promises to double law-enforcement officials for the following weekend. Soccer players lament. Relatives demand justice. Reporters add and neglect.
The pastor keeps up with his agenda and by now he has already flown to another country. He does not devote a sentence to those deaths, or any death, here or anywhere else.
But the common people, the kidneys of the country, they ponder. Some question why this should happen after the pastor made such a contrasting promise. Some diagram conclusions based on a couple of connections and interpret them as a sign of: Something.
Others, the ones we are being punished for, infer not without sarcasm that the three murdered attendees must have not been Believers. Out of this last group, the one we are being punished for, a few join the evangelical movement a couple of months later. And others disappear.
