Mariana Iglesias
05/04/2021 10:54
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 05/04/2021 10:54
Almost two months after the impeachment trial against the prosecutor Julio César Castro began,
on Thursday the sentence of
the Prosecution Court of the Public Prosecutor's Office will be known.
Castro came to be
in charge of the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Sexual Crimes
.
A former partner denounced him and at the end of 2019 he was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for sexual abuse and injuries in a context of gender violence.
In turn, Castro was denounced for sexual and labor harassment, mistreatment and abuse of power in his workplace.
"All attributed behaviors are characterized by
the objectification of their employees and their consequent depersonalization
, action that by repetition and characteristics pierces very deeply in the personality," said prosecutor Laura Mazzaferri, head of the Federal Prosecutor's Office No. 1 of Mar del Plata.
Castro was
proven to
manipulate and extort his employees
with promotions or loss of their jobs if they did not do what he asked.
Castro was suspended from his duties, but he is not in prison.
Support for victims
"Once again we express all our support and accompaniment to the victims, especially those who with their testimonies and at the expense of their emotional and labor integrity managed to advance here:
the Prosecution Court of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Nation has in its hands the possibility of punishing Castro
according to the seriousness of his actions and the enormous damages caused both to the victims and to the functioning of the justice service, "says a statement from the Collective of Workers of the MPF, Women Workers of Comodoro PY, the Collective of Workers of the MPD and that carries hundreds of signatures of human rights, justice and social organizations.
"
Whoever harasses, depersonalizes and objectifies their employees is not suitable to be a Prosecutor,
contradicts the institutional objectives of the MPF and hinders the daily work of any judicial agency," the letter states.
In December 2016, while the Senate was evaluating Castro's specifications to be appointed Judge, there were
two challenges
: one for the complaint of
workplace and sexual harassment
- which had not advanced until then - and another for a conversation on
that the prosecutor had Maintained with a 15-year-old teenager:
"But how cute!", "Come on, I'm going to look for you."
The Agreements Commission finally unanimously rejected its specifications for lack of suitability.
"If he is not suitable to be a judge, he is not suitable to continue being a prosecutor,"
remarks the organizations' statement. And he adds: "The acts of sexual and labor harassment, mistreatment and abuse of power within the MPF are
serious enough to decide their removal."
"In 2014, a MPF worker was encouraged to denounce Castro for workplace and sexual harassment, mistreatment and abuse of power. Only in March 2017 was a disciplinary investigation ordered to elucidate her responsibility. As the investigation progressed , what was already an open secret was confirmed:
Castro systematically exercised labor or sexual abuse (or both simultaneously) and no one had dared to denounce him due to his hierarchical position within the MPF
and the power he effectively exercised over daily life work of its employees: emptying of tasks, unjustified transfers, low grades ", recalls the statement.
Between March and April 2021, more than 5 years after the first complaint, the victims had to give testimony again. "
The first step in talking about reparation is their removal.
The length and tightness of the procedure prevented for years the validation of the victims among their peers and before new hierarchical superiors because the nickname of 'conflictive' fell on them. Some were forced to leave the organization or move to another city.
This sentence is key to begin to heal
because the process was very costly for the victims, "he continues.
In his argument, Castro's defense wanted to relativize the facts by invoking the culture of rape as something "not questioned in the last century." "But
the harassment and sexual abuse were never humorous.
They tried to place the Prosecutor as a target of unfounded attacks and went so far as to say that 'a monster is built and it is very difficult to defend oneself.' We think that
Castro is not a monster but an exponent
- exacerbated , by the way -
of the patriarchal culture
that through all kinds of violence sought to reaffirm his masculinity using his power as a magistrate ".
"We are no longer silent. We demand that we live in
a Public Ministry free of violence
in line with the demands and achievements of the women's and feminist movement in our country."
"On May 6 it will be decided
whether or not Castro's actions go unpunished.
Due to the depth of what is at stake, it will be a hinge day for
the recognition of the human rights of women
in the judicial labor sphere," the statement concludes. - This Trial Court has the option of
acting with a gender perspective
and contextualizing the asymmetries of power to apply a just sanction. We trust, once again, that they will be up to the circumstances and the times that run. "
