'Our club represented Brazil': Chapecoense tragedy a crushing blow to nation in crisis

For many in the southern city of Chapecó the football team, whose players and staff were nearly all killed in a plane crash in Colombia on Monday, were a balm against the political and economic upheaval battering their countryLaudiceia Xavier, 20, cried when her father woke her up on Tuesday with the news that the charter plane carrying their local football team had crashed on a mountainside in Colombia.
Her eyes were still red on Wednesday. “I couldn’t believe it. It was a ve