Argentinian justice reopens case of Cuban woman who accused associates of Maradona of human trafficking.

Argentinian justice ordered the reopening of the criminal case against a Cuban woman who accused the circle of soccer player Diego Armando Maradona of human trafficking.

The I Chamber of the Federal Criminal Cassation Court issued a new ruling on Tuesday regarding the complaint made by Mavys Álvarez, who was brought to Argentina when she was 16 years old. Now the case will focus on the officials who allowed her to enter the country as a minor and without her parents' consent.

The complaint had been rejected in March 2022 by Judge Daniel Rafecas, who decided to file it away because the events related to Maradona that occurred in Argentina had expired, a decision that the Federal Court of Argentina upheld months later.

But this week judges Daniel Petrone, Diego Barroetaveña, and Carlos Mahiques ruled that the case should return to magistrate Rafecas, and they recommend "exhausting evidence measures" and focusing the investigation on those responsible for Mavys Álvarez's entry into the South American nation.

"In such conditions, addressing the issue raised in this aspect by the complainant, it is necessary to clear the doubts surrounding the possible involvement of public officials, for which it is appropriate to deepen the investigation and exhaust the study of that aspect based on the evidence measures deemed relevant," states the ruling, which was accessed by Infobae.

Carlos Ferro Viera and Gabriel Buono, friends of Maradona who frequently attended his parties and trips, will now be investigated again. However, Guillermo Coppola, the footballer's representative, as well as Mariano Israelit and Omar Suárez, friends who accompanied him several times on his trips to Cuba, are exempt from a new investigation.

The Cuban had accused them of having convinced her, while she was a minor, to accompany the Argentine star during his stay at the La Pradera rehabilitation center in Cuba. The relationship between them led her to suffer sexual abuse, fall into drugs, and undergo a breast operation without her consent that took place in Argentina.

"In the same circumstances, drugs were supplied to me in the country, which led to an addiction for many years. The aftermath of what I went through endures to this day," she reported.

Mavys Álvarez, now 37 years old, claims that she was a victim of an abusive relationship with Maradona, who controlled her by taking advantage of the fact that she was a teenager and that he had the backing of Fidel Castro himself.

"During my stay in Argentina, in 2001, where I remained for two and a half months, I was not allowed to leave the hotels where I stayed alone, nor from an apartment located in Capital Federal where I remained, always having people in charge of making sure I stayed there. Throughout my entire stay in the country, I was only able to do two activities of my choice (one to go shopping and another to the zoo), although I was always accompanied by a person until my return," she emphasized in the process.