Mavis Alvarez, a Cuban woman who had a relationship with the late football star Diego Maradona two decades ago, told a news conference on Monday that the Argentine player had raped her as a teenager and "stolen her childhood."Alvarez, now 37, testified in court at the Argentine Ministry of Justice last week while investigating allegations of Maradona's trafficking against 16-year-old former members.
Maradona, considered one of the greatest football stars of all time, died a year ago on November 25, 2020.
The allegations relate to Alvarez's visit to Argentina with Maradona in 2001, when he was about 40 and 16 years old.
Alvarez said he first met the football star shortly before the trip, when he was in Cuba for drug treatment.
Alvarez told a news conference in Buenos Aires that he had been raped by Maradona at a clinic in Havana, where his mother lived next door.
"She covers my face. She rapes me. I don't want to think too much about it," Alvarez said.
"I stopped being a girl, all my innocence was stolen from me. It's hard. Stop living the innocent things that a girl of that age has to feel."
Prior to Maradonas death, his lawyer, Matthias Morla, did not respond to a request for comment. Maradona's other legal representatives could not be identified in the case.
Alvarez has previously described the relationship as consensual in media interviews, but also said that Maradona had insisted on it at least once.
He said Maradona's friendship with the late Cuban President Fidel Castro enabled his family to keep in touch with him despite the age gap.
"My family would never have accepted it without the involvement of the Cuban government," he said. "They were forced to accept a relationship in other ways that was not good for them or anyone else."
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alvarez said he had "filed the complaint to help all women, victims of trafficking, victims of crime." "I want to be able to help them in any way I can. That's my idea."
He said it was difficult to return to Argentina, where Maradona was a hero to many.
"It's hard to be in his country, he's everywhere, I think he's an idol and at the same time an ugly person," he said.
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