PERSPECTIVE ON COLOMBIA : The Score: Drug Lords 1, Sports 0 : A nation struggling to overcome its violent reputation is stunned by the slaying of soccer star Andres Escobar.

The brutal assassination of soccer star Andres Escobar is painful to me, as it is to the vast majority of Colombians, and not just at the loss of life of the brilliant young player. It is painful also because soccer had become a positive force in the midst of the nation’s collective depression.

Americans probably don’t understand why soccer is so important to Colombians, or why we would go to the extreme of executing one of our greatest athletes for a simple accident--kicking the ball into his own goal--on the playing field. Make no mistake about it, we are deeply saddened, because soccer represented for many our last hope to recover in international image deteriorated perhaps beyond repair.

In the last weeks, for the first time in many years, people did not mention the word cocaine when they discovered I was from Colombia. Instead they talked about the Colombian team in the World Cup competition, they asked about the player with the “long curly blond hair” and about our chances of going to the finals. Not any more. The break is over.

The images of a violent, unsafe country, corrupted by drug cartels, represents losses of billions of dollars in potential investments and international aid, as well as discouraging tourism. Independent of the financial repercussions of this negative image, the country has witnessed so much violence at all levels of society, that the collective mood of the country has been one of permanent uncertainty.

In the midst of this chaos and corruption, we Colombians saw recent constitutional reforms as the opportunity to transform the country and give back confidence in our social institutions. These reforms, among other things, were to have defined a legal framework under which drug lords could surrender to justice. Nevertheless, a recent U.S. State Department report summarized a widely held sentiment in Colombia: Our constitution may have changed on paper, but in practice, chaos and corruption still reign.

The killing of Andres Escobar is simply the latest chapter in a long drama of hopeful expectations dashed by tragic disappointment. For example, the surrender of drug lord Pablo Escobar (no relation to Andres) was widely seen as the light at the end of the tunnel. When Escobar escaped, Colombians lost any hope that this spelled the end of the Medellin cartel. The recapture and killing of Pablo Escobar was shown to the world as the success of law and order. It was not long before it was evident that the drug business was up and running without him.

In the middle of this sad picture, Colombians put great faith in their soccer team. Players like Escobar, Carlos Valderrama and coach Francisco Maturana became national heroes and the World Cup a dream, potent medicine for a country that has lacked positive role models for so long.

But no exception was made for the Colombian soccer team simply because it was competing on the international scene: It received the same death threats and assassination attempts the country has seen for years. Despite the fact that Andres Escobar was one of the finest athletes the country had to offer, he was executed like the judges, presidential candidates and journalists before him, in a country that seems to know no limits to violence.