Sexual abuse scandal shocks Argentina football
An investigation has just begun on the sexual abuse of teenagers which so far has led to complaints in the academies of Independiente and River Plate. The prosecutor of the case is convinced that more abused and more abusers will appear. "I have a room full of videos, CDs, pen drives, which we have not yet been able to analyze. Let's see what we have there. There is still much to discover”, she finally said to El País.
The prosecutor in the case, María Soledad Garibaldi, is still shocked at how cheap it was for pedophiles to abuse a child. "They gave them 200 pesos [8 euros], some underpants, a SUBE card [the transport ticket], and they agreed. They are poor children, far from their homes, without their parents, very vulnerable”, told the DA to EL PAÍS.
Garibaldi carries out an investigation that has already sent five pedophiles to jail and shocks Argentina, because it unveils a network of abuse to minors since 14 years in football, in a country where this sport is the only way out of the poverty of thousands of children who leave their villages and go to residences of the big clubs with the hope of succeeding. And it was there where the pedophiles sought them, always the poorest. There are seven minors who have denounced abuses in the Independiente club. But now there has also been another complaint of abuse in River Plate, which has presented a doctor who worked there between 2004 and 2011. The scandal is growing and little by little more teens seem to be encouraged to report the violations.
Soccer dominates almost everything in Argentina. That is why the impact of such news is much greater in a country where the ball is a religion and all the children dream of playing in the bottom of their club. Thousands of parents live these terrified hours with the idea that their children, who live in these boarding houses of the clubs or spend a good part of the week there, have suffered similar abuses. But prosecutor Garibaldi explains that pedophiles only abused the especially unprotected children. "During the investigation we have seen that pedophiles did not get access to the boys who had a higher purchasing power or some representative. Those guys immediately blocked WhatsApp or social networks to pedophiles. But the others, the poorest, did accept. They offered them a little money, paid them a trip to the interior to see their parents, new booties. These are boys who have no way of getting all that. They were summoned in some department that they had reserved for this and they abused them. They paid between 200 and 800 pesos, depending on what they did, "says the prosecutor.
Among the detainees, there is a referee, Martín Bustos, a famous actor representative, Leonardo Cohen Arazi, a player representative, Alejandro Carlos Dal Cin, and a tournament organizer for children, Juan Manuel Díaz Vallone. The scandal is shocking in every way possible.
