The 37-year-old Cuban Mavys Alvarez Rego, who had a relationship as a minor about twenty years ago with Diego Maradona, who died almost a year ago, accuses the Argentine and his entourage of abuse, deprivation of liberty and rape.
Mavys Álvarez Rego currently lives in Miami, America, and has two children, ages 15 and 4. Last week she went to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires at the request of a prosecutor to testify. After all, after her statements in American media, an Argentine NGO had lodged a complaint.
The Cuban got to know Maradona when she was barely sixteen years old. The former footballer, who was about 23 years her senior, was staying in Cuba at the time. On the island, under the watchful eye of Fidel Castro, he followed a drug addiction treatment to kick the habit of all kinds of narcotics.
‘In the beginning I was completely overwhelmed, he really conquered me then. Two months later, everything started to change,” she confessed. Maradona would then have incited her to use cocaine, which in turn made her addicted. “I loved him, but at the same time I hated him. I even thought about suicide.’
Photo: AFP
Forced breast augmentation
The relationship would have lasted four to five years. According to the woman, Maradona also raped her at the time in Havana, the Cuban capital. That would have happened in the hospital where the footballer stayed. “He covered my mouth, he raped me. I don’t want to think about it too much,” Álvarez said. “I wasn’t a girl after that, all my innocence was stolen from me.”
In 2001, she was said to have been held in a hotel room for weeks in Buenos Aires against her will by relatives of Maradona. She was not allowed to leave her room and was forced to undergo breast augmentation surgery. There was physical violence all the time.
‘I did what I had to do, I’ll leave the rest to the courts now. My goal has been achieved: to say what happened back then, to prevent other girls from going through the same thing. Or at least that they find the courage to talk about it,” she told the press conference in Argentina. Álvarez also indicated that it was painful to be in the country because Maradona there (and beyond) is worshiped by many people as a (demi) god. “It’s hard to be in his country, to see that he’s everywhere. He’s an idol when all my memories of him as a person feel terrible,” she said.
Friendship with Castro
During past interviews, Álvarez described the relationship as consensual, but she also said that Maradona forced herself on her at least once.
She went on to say that her family only allowed a relationship with the star, despite the large age difference, because of Maradona’s friendship with the late Cuban President Fidel Castro. “My family would never have accepted it if the Cuban government had not been involved,” he said.
The Cuban government has not yet acted on Álvarez’s statements. The five targeted members from Maradona’s entourage deny any involvement. One of them has already filed a complaint against the NGO for defamation.
Photo: AFP
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