New footage emerges of Maradona on bed with 16yo girl his entourage allegedly had trafficked to Argentina from Cuba
A new video appears to show late Argentina legend Diego Maradona in a hotel with a girl who has alleged he seduced her as a 16-year-old and kept her locked in a room where she was plied with drugs.
Mavys Alvarez has claimed she was forced into receiving breast implants after she was groomed and flown to Argentina by Maradona's associates without the permission of her parents.
The clip, which has been obtained by Spanish-language media outlet Infobae, arose amid a human trafficking case lodged against the World Cup winner's entourage by Alvarez, who says she was introduced to him in 2000, when he was 40.
At one point in the video, Alvarez appears uncomfortable while Maradona films her, but in others she sings karaoke.
Hace unos días esta noticia se mantenía firme en la mayoría de los portales: Mavys Álvarez, la "novia" cubana de Maradona: "Era una niña, no podía decirle que no" La mujer que conoció al exfutbolista en Cuba cuando tenía 16 años. Novia? pic.twitter.com/q910WAWFTk
— Jorge Carusso (@jorgecarusso) October 6, 2021
In another, she relaxes on a bed with Maradona as commentary from a football game can be heard in the background.
The ex-Napoli, Barcelona and Boca Juniors star also appears at various other intervals in the footage.
Maradona met Alvarez at a hotel where he stayed in a resort town, Varadero, when he headed to Cuba to complete a drug rehabilitation course, according to The Daily Telegraph.
She alleges that Maradona moved her into a flat in the capital, Havana, and introduced her to his lifestyle of drugs and partying.
"It was the biggest mistake of my life," Alvarez lamented to Miami-based TV channel América TeVe last month.
►..MAVYS ÁLVAREZ, que en ese momento era menor de edad, con 16 años, contó que "eran amigos de él, de los que estaban en su entorno”. Y agregó: “Pudiera ser el propio JOPUTZ(Guillermo) Cóppola”. pic.twitter.com/mf8lMA38ic
— terralybre (@terralybre) October 11, 2021
"I was just a girl. I was pure. He was a stranger, he was rich and he paid attention to me. I could not say no."
After her experience in Havana, Alvarez says she was flown to Buenos Aires. It was there, in 2001, that she says Maradona and his associates kept her in a hotel room for almost three months while pressuring her into having breast implants.
"I was not allowed to go out alone... always having people in charge of my stay there," she described in a court filing while adding that her handlers had only let her out to go shopping and pay a visit to the zoo while she always remained accompanied.
Probed on why she had been silent for almost two decades regarding her allegations, Alvarez said she feared her family could be harmed by the Cuban regime.
Maradona had introduced her to former leader Fidel Castro, who is said to have hugged her and asked how Maradona had managed to meet such a beautiful girl.
Mavys Álvarez,la cubana fue novia de Maradona mientra el futbolista se encontraba en la isla invitado por Fidel Castro hace dos décadas, habló por primera vez de los excesos que vivió con el argentino y con 16 años la introdujo al mundo de las drogas y el alcohol. pic.twitter.com/GRVlepdxvz
— Perruyor (@perruyor) October 5, 2021
Castro is said to have granted Alvarez permission to leave the country in order to attend a commemorative fixture for Maradona in front of 50,000 fans at Boca's iconic Bombonera stadium in November 2001, when few Cubans were allowed to leave the country.
Her claims have already been filed with the Prosecutor’s Office for Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons in Argentina, where she has been listed as a plaintiff in a suit filed last week.
As well as investigating Maradona's entourage, Alvarez wants the case to examine how Argentine immigration officers played a role in her ordeal by letting her into their country without parental consent.
Her lawyer, Gaston Marano, is quoted as saying that there was a "collusion between the foreign and local immigration authorities".
Maradona achieved god-like status in his homeland, where there was a period of national mourning after he passed away last year at the age of 60 from heart failure following brain surgery.
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