Mavys Alvarez Says Diego Maradona Raped Her in 2001 When She Was 16 Years Old

JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images

Mavys Alvarez, a Cuban woman who
previously detailed a relationship with former Argentine soccer star Diego
Maradona, said Monday he subjected her to sexual and physical abuse
and pressured her into taking cocaine. Maradona died in November
2020.

Alvarez, who said in the past she
engaged in a consensual relationship with Maradona but mentioned he forced himself on her on occasion, alleged Monday the latter
instance occurred in 2001 when she was 16 and met him in Cuba while
he was in Havana for drug treatment, per Reuters’ Ramiro Scandalo.

“He covers my mouth, he rapes me,
I don’t want to think about it too much,” Alvarez said. “I
stopped being a girl, all my innocence was stolen from me. It’s hard.
You stop living the innocent things that a girl of that age has to
experience.”

Alvarez was speaking at a press
conference Monday after testifying in front of the Argentine Ministry
of Justice Court last week as it investigates allegations of human
trafficking by members Maradona’s former entourage.

She also said there was an instance
where Maradona became “super aggressive” when she refused
to take cocaine, per Sky Sports. Alvarez said she eventually relented and tried
the drug after Maradona told her she “should do it for him.”

She added the relationship with
Maradona, who was around 40 when they met, was only allowed by her
family because of pressure from Cuba’s government under President
Fidel Castro, who died in 2016.

“My family would never have
accepted it if the Cuban government had not been involved,”
Alvarez said. “They were forced in another way to accept a
relationship that was not good for them, or for anyone.”

Neither representatives for Maradona
nor the Cuban government have commented on the allegations.

Fernando Burlando, an attorney for
Carlos Ferro Viera, a businessman who was part of Maradona’s entourage,
described Alvarez’s testimony to Sky Sports as a “compendium of
accusations more than anything to Diego Maradona.”

Alvarez said her decision to come forward
with the abuse allegations came from a desire to “help all
women, all victims of trafficking, of crime.”