“Maradona was in free fall, drinking a lot”

Maximiliano Pomargopersonal secretary of Diego Armando Maradonadeclared this Thursday in the trial for the death of the Argentine soccer idol that a month before his death the star was “in free fall.” Pomargo belonged to a team led by Maradona’s lawyer and attorney, Matías Morla, who managed the personal, commercial and legal issues of the Diez. He began working on Maradona’s team of assistants in 2016 and, as he explained, he was in charge “from buying him a pair of shoes to talking to the president of FIFA.”

Asked about the former soccer player’s state of health in October 2020, a month before his death, he answered that “Diego was in free fall” and that he warned his family doctor, Leopoldo Luque. “He was drinking a lot. There was no way. In that month the idea was considered that if he had to be forcibly interned, it would be done, they would talk about it,” declared Pomargo.

When asked about the home treatment to which Maradona was subjected from November 11 to 25, 2020, the day of his death, the witness incurred contradictions. First, he was unaware of having had any interference in that decision – which the Prosecutor’s Office considers crucial in the idol’s outcome – and, after his testimony was contrasted with messages indicating the opposite, he said that Maradona did not want to be admitted to a clinic and that he “would never have done anything against Diego’s will.”

Liver problems

The witness claimed to be unaware that Maradona had a cardiac history, but at the insistence of the Prosecutor’s Office, he acknowledged that he knew of the health episodes that had been public knowledge prior to his joining the team, but that he did not believe the press publications. Then, he reported that in August of that year medical studies had shown problems in the idol’s liver and added: “I told Luque to scare him with that so that he would stop drinking.”

“Do you consider that only because of alcohol addiction was his health fragile?” asked the president of the court, Alberto Gaig, to which Pomargo responded that the conversation around the star’s health always revolved around that aspect.

The witness said that during the last days of Maradona’s life he warned Luque and the psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, also accused in the trial, that he saw him very swollen and depressed. “When I report the swelling, Luque tells me it’s because Diego spent a lot of time lying down,” he added. Pomargo is one of many close friends of Maradona, including his daughters, who days before his death warned about a striking swelling.

Maradona died due to acute lung edema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure, according to the autopsy. In addition to Luque and Cosachov, the home care coordinator of Swiss Medical Nancy Forlini, the clinical doctor Pedro Di Spagna, the nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, the nurse Ricardo Almirón and the psychologist Carlos Díaz are tried in this process, all accused of the crime of simple homicide with possible intent.