"He stole my childhood": a resident of Cuba accused Maradona of rape

Cuban citizen Mavis Alvarez said Diego Maradona raped her when she was only 16 years old, Reuters reported.

Alvarez is now 37 years old, and two decades ago she had an affair with the late football star. According to the woman, they met in the early 2000s, when Maradona was undergoing drug addiction treatment in Cuba. Relatives allowed her to have a relationship with the star, despite the big age difference, because of Maradona's friendship with the late Cuban President Fidel Castro. “My family would never have agreed if the Cuban government had not been involved”, - Alvarez said.

The woman claims that Maradona raped her at the clinic in Havana, where he was. Her mother at that time was in the next room. “He covers my mouth, he rapes me”, - recalls Alvarez. - I ceased to be a girl, all my innocence was stolen from me. It's hard. You stop living what all girls at that age experience".

Alvarez previously described her romance with Maradona in a media interview as a consensual relationship, however, it was stipulated that at least once Maradona's behavior was too intrusive. The woman made her current confession during the process that is going on in the Argentine court and where charges of trafficking in persons against the former circle of Maradona are being investigated.

Alvarez said her confession is meant to "help all women and all victims of trafficking." The woman admits that it was not easy for her to return to Argentina, where Maradona is considered a national hero. "It's hard to be in his country, to see that he is everywhere, he is an idol, and to realize that everything I remember about him as a person is so ugly".