Cuban Mavys Alvarez, who testified towards soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona in a case for alleged human trafficking, holds an image of her sitting subsequent to Maradona, his former agent Guillermo Coppola and an unidentified lady, after a information convention with international media, in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
BUENOS AIRES — Mavys Alvarez, a Cuban lady who had a relationship with late soccer star Diego Maradona 20 years in the past, advised a information convention on Monday that the Argentine participant had raped her when she was a teen and “stolen her childhood.”
Alvarez, now 37, gave testimony final week to an Argentine Ministry of Justice courtroom that’s investigating her allegations of trafficking towards Maradona’s former entourage, linked to occasions when she was 16.
Maradona, extensively thought of one of many best ever soccer stars, died a 12 months in the past on Nov. 25, 2020.
The criticism pertains to a journey Alvarez took to Argentina with Maradona in 2001, when he was round 40 and she or he was 16.
Alvarez stated that she first met the soccer star shortly earlier than the journey, when he was in Cuba to bear drug habit therapy.
At a information convention in Buenos Aires, Alvarez stated Maradona had raped her within the clinic in Havana the place he was staying, whereas her mom was within the subsequent room.
“He covers my mouth, he rapes me, I don’t wish to give it some thought an excessive amount of,” Alvarez stated.
“I finished being a woman, all my innocence was stolen from me. It’s arduous. You cease dwelling the harmless issues {that a} lady of that age has to expertise.”
Matias Morla, Maradona’s lawyer earlier than his demise, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Reuters couldn’t determine different authorized representatives for Maradona within the case.
Alvarez has beforehand described the connection in media interviews as consensual, but in addition stated that Maradona had at the very least on one event compelled himself upon her.
She stated that her household had solely allowed a relationship with the star to occur, regardless of the massive age hole, due to Maradona’s friendship with the late Cuban President Fidel Castro.
“My household would by no means have accepted it if the Cuban authorities had not been concerned,” she stated. “They had been compelled in one other technique to settle for a relationship that was not good for them, or for anybody.”
Cuba’s authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Alvarez stated she had filed the criticism “so as to assist all ladies, all victims of trafficking, of crime,” she stated. “To have the ability to assist them in no matter method I can. That’s my concept.”
She stated it was arduous to be again in Argentina, the place Maradona stays a hero to many.
“It’s arduous to be in his nation, to see that he’s in all places, he’s an idol and on the identical time every thing I bear in mind about him as an individual feels ugly,” she stated.
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