Maradona: the outrage in Argentina over the photos released by some employees of the funeral home of the Argentine star’s coffin

• Drafting
• BBC World News

Argentina’s sadness over the loss of Diego Armando Maradona, one of its national heroes, was compounded by outrage over some photographs of the open coffin of his idol.

And it is that three people hired by the funeral home in charge of preparing the body of the Argentine star for his wake were taken several photographs next to coffin.

In two images, the three men can be seen posing next to the open casket, two of them with their thumbs raised in apparent approval.

The photographs ended up being disseminated on social networks while Maradona was veiled in the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, causing the anger and indignation of many Argentines.

“Generalized rejection,” noted the country’s main newspapers.

The agent and lawyer of the soccer legend, Matías Morla, described one of the people who took the photo as a “scoundrel” and warned that he would take action for what happened.

“For the memory of my friend I will not rest until I pay for such aberration“, he said on Twitter, where criticism against those involved is accumulating but there are also some comments justifying his action due to the fanaticism that surrounded the” Ten “.

One of the owners of the funeral home Sepelios Pinier assured that his family is “shocked” for the situation and explained that the employees in question were “outsourced workers”.

“They were not our employees. We hired them to carry the materials for the burning chapel, such as the pedestals and lecterns,” he told La Nación newspaper.

“When we saw the photos our reaction was cry, cry and cry. My brother Diego, who is the owner, is in his house devastated. We do not know what to do. We have a very good reputation because we are very educated and we dedicate our lives to our work, “he added.

One of the people who appears in the images asked for forgiveness for what happened and assured that it had never happened before, that it was something “instantaneous” and that he did not know that this photo was going to end up being shared, the local media collect.

The managers of Sepelios Pinier told the local press that they called Claudia Villafañe, Maradona’s ex-wife, to apologize and indicated that she was “furious” over what had happened.

According to the Argentine news agency Télam, the authorities have no record of any complaint being made about what happened.

The remains of the former Argentine footballer they were buried on Thursday in a cemetery on the outskirts of Buenos Aires after the massive and chaotic farewell that thousands of Argentines gave to their idol.

As explained by the BBC Mundo correspondent in Buenos Aires, Veronica Smink, Maradona in his last years of life – and in particular his last days – suffered from health problems, but, despite this, the news of his death as a result of acute heart failure “caused a shock in Argentina.”

“This shock reveals the divine status that the soccer star had in his country of origin,” he stressed. “What is lived is a kind of national catharsis around the figure of the ‘Ten'”.

Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.