A new and delicate criminal complaint has been known in Colombian sports. This time the events occurred in the department of Santander, in which four athletes point to the athletics coach Giovanny Vega White already Betty Rojas Sanguino of sexual harassment, sexual acts in person in the inability to resist and others.
The complaint, to which EL TIEMPO had access, was filed by the lawyer Leonardo Zher Sandoval, who is the attorney for the athletes, after the power granted by César Augusto Castellanos Gómez, legal secretary of Bucaramanga, appointed by the Mayor of Bucaramanga, by Decree No. 0031 of July 21, 2020.
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The plaintiffs attached testimonies under oath to the criminal complaint against those indicated for “the alleged commission of crimes of sexual harassment, sexual acts in person in the inability to resist and others, according to the facts.
hard testimonials
As it was known, on January 12, 2022, Kathryn Orcasita, Coordinator of the Equity and Gender Program of the Mayor’s Office of Bucaramanga, received a phone call from a woman stating that she wanted to make known the irregularities that have been presented in the Luis Enrique Figueroa athletics stadium. King of this city.
Then, Orcasita received a communication from Juan Gabriel Henao Mantilla, President and Legal Representative of the Santander Athletics League (Lisanatletismo), who informed him of the irregularities that the accused carried out, taking advantage of the positions held by each one.
It was reported that the defendants were reported for crimes such as “child abuse, sexual harassment, violence against women, exploitation of minors, labor exploitation, physical or moral violence, sexual abuse, cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment that They are being perpetrated by the athletics teacher Giovanny Vega Blanco and Mrs. Betty Rojas Sanguino, who acts as the legal representative of the Club Deportivo Maratón Sport de Bucaramanga, to which the victim athletes belong,” reads the complaint.
Henao Mantilla appeared as a witness in reference to the facts, punishable conduct against children and adolescents in sports settings in reference to “child abuse, physical and psychological violence, sexual harassment, sexual violence, gender-based violence and cruel and inhuman against athletes who have trained and/or train with Mr. Giovanny Vega Blanco.”
The document contains the complaint of a first athlete, a minor, who assures that Vega Blanco made sexual comments to her in the facilities of the Bucaramanga athletics stadium, Luis Enrique Figueroa Rey, and in other spaces that were used for the sport practice.
The complainant also referred to “physical and psychological abuse by disqualifying her as an athlete, forcing her to compete even when injured, and injecting substances into her body to improve her performance.”
In said report, “the commission of abusive and/or violent sexual acts resulting from touching their private parts (sexual organ, breasts and other parts of the body), perpetrated in the bathrooms of sports spaces, is revealed, the aggressor taking advantage of the superiority that he showed in front of the young woman”, it is indicated in the criminal complaint.
Another of the athletes who informed the authorities of the aforementioned facts indicated that she, her sister and another athlete received mistreatment, insults, disqualification, sexual harassment, abusive and violent sexual act.
Some sisters, victims
The sisters in question assure that they trained with the department of Córdoba, they went to a competition in Barranquilla and Vega proposed that they move to Bucaramanga to follow up and work plans. They accepted.
“In Bucaramanga they lived with him in the house of a woman they identified as “Betty”. In said place, they state, that they received mistreatment, physical and psychological violence, they were forced to follow a strict diet and to be injected with complex B and diclofenac”, states the testimony.
Similarly, in the complaint there are indications of another athlete who lived three months, between 2013 and 2014, with Blanco and Rojas, whom he accused of ill-treatment, humiliation, physical and psychological abuse, and accused that they forced him to beg to get food.
Among the complaints, it was learned that one of the athletes was allegedly a “victim of violent or abusive carnal access” and an athlete from whom, according to the complaint, Vega “removed the financial support granted by INDERSANTANDER”, as It is informed.
The attorney for the athletes warns in the complaint that “the possible commission of multiple events of crimes against freedom, integrity and sexual formation, including sexual acts with a person incapable of resisting, carnal access, sexual harassment, committed to the detriment of adolescents (all under 18 years of age) women, athletes or sportsmen who were in a position of inferiority compared to the possible aggressor (coach); as well as possible crimes against the personal integrity of these young women who were subjected to treatments to improve their physical performance, theft, cruel and inhuman treatment, among others, for which, in the case of crimes that can be investigated ex officio for being at stake or interdicting the rights of children and adolescents, and being our obligation as a public entity (art. 67 of the CPP), we inform the competent authority of these serious facts so that they can carry out the rigorous investigations IMMEDIATELY”, the complaint states.
And it is added: “For the above, we request the Regional Directorate of Prosecutors based in this city, urgently arrange the necessary investigations, applying a gender approach given the conditions that have been made explicit in this complaint, and The necessary measures are adopted to protect the victims, collect their testimonies as a priority in accordance with legal formalities, and collect the other evidence necessary to clarify these unfortunate facts.”
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