Corralejas de Sincelejo: 43 years of the tragedy that the country forgot

43 years have passed since the fall of the corralejas in Sincelejo and the memory of the tragedy remains intact in the man and woman from Sabana, those who mourn their dead every January 20 like that painful day.

That January 20, 1980, at 3:45 in the afternoon, a part of the wooden boxes fell to the ground like a house of cards, leaving nearly 500 people dead and thousands injured, crippled for the whole life. life.

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The fall of the boxes, the beginning of a tragedy

The corralejas that were tragedy. (Photo: private archive).

“That day the sun was hot, there was no room for one more person in the boxes. It was January 20 and lovers of the Creole brava festival did not want to miss the show. Suddenly, in a few minutes the weather changed and a downpour fell on the city, forcing the spectators to seek refuge in the back of the building”, says Emiro Bertel, who that day attended the party in company of his family.

The weight of the people stationed in the box, going – mostly – towards the back caused the wood to split and the construction to fall to the ground. “Everything was confusion, wood and zinc sheets were above us, the wounded were screaming in pain and the rain was falling harder,” he narrates.

He points out that it was impressive to see the number of deceased people lying under the boards.

“It’s not telling it, it’s being there and observing the tragedy that was experienced in a setting that was preceded by the joy of a traditional celebration, with band music and drinks, and then it turned to the worst,” he says.

Relatives carried away the dead

The corralejas that were tragedy. (Photo: private archive)

The journalist Felipe Bertel Torrente broadcast the festivities on a local station that day. He narrates that in the local hospitals and in the region in general there was no room for injured people and the doctors were insufficient to attend to the emergency.

”The dead were piling up in the Regional Hospital and their relatives were forced to take them home. In the central cemetery, the vaults were closed with reinforced cement to prevent the smell from invading the place”, says Bertel Torrente.

“The authorities in Sincelejo had to look for coffins in other towns to bury their dead,” he said.

The corralejas that were tragedy: Promotional poster of a corraleja. (Photo: private archive)

For the lawyer and historian Inis Amador Paternina, the construction that was carried out that year in 1980 had many flaws in its construction. “They looked for a man who had no idea about the construction. That type of corralejas, in whatever state it was, poorly built, improvised, with the rain and the slope of the terrain allowed the sand to undermine and the weight of the people who went backwards caused the fall, ”he explained. .

That year, in addition, the traditional rancher of January 20, Arturo Cumplido Sierra, was not taken into account to offer his bulls and Pedro Juan Tulena was in his place, apparently in a political move.

“Arturo Cumplido was a kind of natural engineer, he always reviewed the construction of the corralejas, but that year of the tragedy he withdrew from everything because they took away his day and he preferred to go to his farm in San Cayetano,” said historian Inis Amador Paternina .

The corralejas are now made in villages, corregimientos, social clubs and traditional towns

Today, 43 years after the fall of the corralejas in Sincelejo and many people trying to prevent the festivities from continuing, on the contrary, in some towns on the coast and in the interior of the country the phenomenon continues.

The corralejas festivities are now held in villages, corregimientos, social clubs and towns.

”There are no bulls to cover so many parties, many ranchers have to repeat the animals. Everything has become a business and businessmen seek to make their profits because it is very expensive to throw a party in Corraleja. However, the fervor continues to rise”, affirms a farmer.

At the time, the State paid more than 5,000 million pesos in compensation to relatives of the people who died on that January 20, 1980, and even the municipality of Sincelejo continues to pay millions of dollars for what happened.

Today Sincelejo celebrates its third day of festivities in Corralejas and in the central cemetery many mourn their relatives.

Source: Elcomercio