Peru: Football Player’s Airport Joke Triggers Security Alert · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón

On Wednesday August 15, 2012, the Peruvian national soccer team had a friendly match with the Costa Rican national team. The final score was 1-0, with a victory for Peru. For a country used to suffering failures in football, that alone would have been enough news.
However, the real news came the next day. The team was getting ready to board the plane, going through security controls at the San Jose International Airport in Costa Rica with every other passenger on that same flight. They were on their third security check when football player John Galliquio said: “an extra effort and they will find the weapon I'm carrying with me”.
Without repeating the joke, the Peruvian National team's Twitter account, Selección Nacional (@SELECCION_PERU) [es], announced:
@SELECCION_PERU: Una broma malinterpretada por personal de la.aerolínea y del aeropuerto ha generado problemaa en el vuelo de retorno de la selección.
This triggered all the alarms at the San Jose International Airport, and an anti-terrorist protocol was activated, as confirmed by Celso Gamboa, Costa Rica Vice Minister of Security. Galliquio was intervened and he was unable to take the flight with the rest of the team. Because of that incident, the flight had a two-hour delay.
John Galliquio, image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Galliquio arrived to Lima later that same day, and reportedly said [es]: “I apologize with all the people that had to be taken off the plane and for the flight delay. Every day we learn new things in order to avoid the same mistakes. It's over now and there is nothing else to say. Everything is all right”.
But apparently there was more to be said. There were reactions, both locally and abroad.
Republishing an article from newspaper El Comercio [es], the blog Esto es bueno [es] noted:
“Un dicho de Galliquio a los muchachos, en broma, ha activado el protocolo anti-terrorismo en el vuelo. Parece una sobrereacción”, así fue complementada la información.
@SELECCION_PERU [es] later tweeted:
@SELECCION_PERU: John Galliquio ya fue liberado. Sin cargos.
The blog TVHD online [es] reposted what teammate Paolo Guerrero said:
Estábamos bromeando. Yo dije (sobre Galliquio): ‘Él es el que tiene droga’, y no pensé que fueran tan estrictos”, relató Paolo Guerrero en el aeropuerto Jorge Chávez. “Esperemos que regrese bien”, agregó el capitán peruano.
The incident hit the news abroad too.
In Argentina, Perfil [es] reported that as soon as Galliquio told his joke anti-terrorist alarms were activated at the San Jose International Airport in Costa Rica at 11.30 am on Thursday. In Spain, sports newspaper Marca [es] wrote that this event kept Galliquio in Costa Rican territory, where he was interrogated by the General Attorney. Sports newspaper La Nación – Puro Deporte [es], from Costa Rica, informed that Galliquio caused chaos at the airport as his team was about to leave the country.
From Germany, the blog Agencia Latina Press [de] reported:
Der peruanische Fußballspieler […] während der Rückreise vom Länderspiel in Costa Rica (1:0) auf dem Flughafen des zentralamerikanischen Landes festgenommen worden. Nach Angaben des peruanischen Fußballverbandes hatte er “witzige” Kommentare während der Sicherheitskontrolle gemacht.
Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz with comments.
User @442 [es] shares his curiosity:
@442: Insólita detención por “terrorista” del peruano John Galliquio (ex Racing)
On its Twitter account, Peruvian sports newspaper Líbero (@diariolibero) quotes Galliquio saying:
@diariolibero: John Galliquio: Siempre hago bromas, pero asumo mi responsabilidad y estoy arrepentido ow.ly/d1L3h
Meanwhile, Diego R. (@diegovera_) [es] retweets what Nolberto Solano, another Peruvian football player, said:
@diegovera_: Sí, claro. RT @Netjoven Nolberto Solano: Lo de John Galliquio quedará como anécdota
On the other hand, Gustavo Gutierrez (@Gustav0_G) [es] links to an article which reports on the consequences of Galliquio's joke:
@Gustav0_G: Federación castigará a John Galliquio http://bit.ly/Q907k7
User Eric Olavarrieta (@ericolavarrieta) [es] is outraged, as we can see from these two tweets:
@ericolavarrieta: ¿Crear una crisis que lastima la imagen de tu selección y luego decir que fue una broma? #quéhaces #imagendeportiva -> bit.ly/NJpyKU
@ericolavarrieta: Y luego sale otro jugador a rematar diciendo “en broma” que eran drogas #nojuegues #imagendeportiva -> bit.ly/NJqxLj
The same user reflects on his self-named blog, Ericolavarrieta [es]:
¿Cuándo vas a despertar Perú? ¿Cuándo dejarás de dar esto tipo de lamentables noticias? ¿Cuándo te vas a poner a trabajar en serio por tu imagen y tu reputación deportiva?
Esperar que sucedan cosas peores y entonces sí reaccionar, no es el camino. Dejar pasar más tiempo para que a la prensa y a la gente se le olvide, tampoco. Hoy es el momento, hoy es tu momento.
When are you going to wake up, Peru? When will you leave behind these kind of regrettable news? When are you going to start working seriously for the sake of your image and your sports reputation?
To wait for worse things to happen and then react is not the way to go. Neither is it right to let more time go by for the press and the people to forget. Today it is the time, today it is your time.