On Monday, a 37-year-old Cuban lady accused Diego Maradona and his entourage of assault and torture, including rape and detaining her against her will, 20 years after she had an encounter with him as a teenager. Mavys Alvarez Rego, who now resides in Miami, told the press in Buenos Aires about meeting Maradona when she was 16 and he was in his forties and was in Cuba for drug treatment. "He dazzled me, and he won me over...
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But after two months, things started to change," she stated, alleging that Maradona, who died of a heart attack at the age of 60 a year ago, had forced her to take cocaine, becoming her addicted.
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"I loved him, but I also hated him, to the point that I considered suicide," she claimed.
Maradona is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, having led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup.
After decades of fights with cocaine and alcohol addictions, he died last year after undergoing brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
Alvarez Rego, a mother of two children ages 15 and 4, stated her connection with Maradona lasted "between four and five years," but that she was subjected to sexual harassment during that time.
She alleged that on a trip to Buenos Aires with Maradona in 2001, she was kept against her will at a hotel by Maradona's crew for several weeks, barred from going out alone, and forced to undergo a breast enhancement procedure.
She also alleged that Maradona "raped" her at their Havana house on one occasion, as well as mentioning multiple other incidents of physical abuse.
Although Alvarez Rego has not filed a complaint, she is giving testimony to an Argentine prosecutor this week in Buenos Aires in connection with a complaint made by an Argentine NGO.
After viewing her confessions in the American media in recent weeks, the "Foundation for Peace" filed the case.
Human trafficking, denial of liberty, forced servitude, assault, and violence are all included in the complaint.
In the run-up to the first anniversary of Maradona's death on November 25, Alvarez Rego claimed she was speaking up after so many years of quiet to balance some of the stories being presented in a TV series about him.
She hinted that she would not pursue the case any further.
"I did what I needed to do, and the rest is up to the courts," she stated.
"I fulfilled my goal to speak out about what happened to me in order to prevent it from occurring to others, or at the very least to give other females the confidence to speak up.”