EL VIGIA, Venezuela: Venezuelan boxer Edwin Valero, who committed suicide on Monday in a jail where he was held for killing his wife, was buried on Wednesday as details emerged of the troubled fighter’s history of drug and alcohol abuse.
TRAGIC STORY: People gather around Valero’s coffin during his funeral in his hometown of El Vigia. — AFP photo
A coffin bearing Valero’s remains was driven to his birth place Vigia in Venezuela’s Andean foothills, where hundreds of fans crammed into the Morochito Rodriguez gym where the boxer began his career. The 28-year-old, nicknamed ‘The Inca’, was charged on Sunday with stabbing his wife Jennifer Carolina Viera de Valero to death in a hotel room in the city of Valencia.
He hung himself in jail with his clothes after confessing to her murder, police said.
Valero was laid to rest in the same cemetery his 24-year-old wife was buried a day earlier and where her relatives had accused authorities of ignoring a pattern of domestic abuse.
“The only thing we ask for is justice, the death of my daughter cannot stay like this,” her father, Armando Viera, said on Tuesday by his daughter’s grave some distance from the boxer’s. “Her mother and I repeatedly told the security forces … about the Inca’s abuse of my daughter, and they never believed us, now this happens.”
Valero, the father of two children, had a troubled start to 2010, detained in March for mistreating his wife and then receiving treatment for alcohol problems.
His wife was taken to hospital earlier this year with fractured ribs and a damaged lung. She initially accused Valero of causing the injuries, but later changed her story to say she had fallen down some stairs.
A medical report ordered by police said the fighter, who stunned the boxing world with 27 KOs and held the World Boxing Council lightweight title until going for rehabilitation, had abused cocaine and alcohol and had psychiatric issues.
A high-profile supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Valero had a national flag with an image of Chavez tattooed on hs chest. He was briefly placed in a rehabilitation centre and was due to travel to Cuba for a government-funded trip to recover from substance abuse, but the trip was delayed after he had a car crash.
Valero was being groomed to fight world welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, promoter Bob Arum said this week. — Reuters