'He started harassing me, he wanted to kiss me': the case of the protected witness that ended in scandal

His testimony was fundamental against the clan of the Tucumán brothers Rubén "la Chancha" Ale (63) and Ángel "El Mono" Ale (68) sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017 for "money laundering" from usury, extortion and economic exploitation of prostitution.

She had been one of his victims and the information she gave to the Justice was so important and sensitive that she ended up living with her two children far from her homeland, under another name, within the Witness Protection Program of the Ministry of Justice of the Nation.

In the case file against the Ale, she was identified as witness F081014. Clarín, which interviewed her several times, renamed her "María" to protect her identity. His story is full of painful moments and overcomings. And just a few days ago "Maria" had a small revenge: federal judge Maria Romilda Servini de Cubría prosecuted for sexual abuse the operator of the Program whom she had first accused 6 years ago.

"Such a degree of conviction arises from the different means of evidence collected in the course of the present case that lead me to consider it prima facie that the accused sexually abused the person identified as F081014 on repeated occasions while the accused exercised functions as an operator of the witness of protected identity within the framework of the National Program for the Protection of Witnesses of the Ministry of Justice of the Nation," says the ruling signed on May 5 by Servini de Cubria.

Rubén "la Chancha" Ale (63) during the trial in which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017. Photo File / Delfo Rodríguez

In the almost 200 pages of resolution – to which Clarín had access – the judge evaluated that there was sufficient evidence for Gustavo Horacio Torrent (69) to go to oral trial for three episodes of simple sexual abuse allegedly occurred "in the period between October 2014 and April 2015, during which the aforementioned was under that protection regime."

"To sexually assault the victim, Torrent abused the authority, dependence and power he had over it, since it was the named one who was in charge of the case of the aforementioned witness (...) The sexual abuse consisted, according to the act that was imputed to her, in kissing her and / or trying to do so; touching her tail, breasts, vagina; putting your tongue in your mouth; put his hand in the belly under the clothes; and hug her with the erect penis, "said the judge who also recalled that a first file with the complaint of the witness was lost and had to be reconstructed.

Harassment and abuse

"He started to cuddle me, he wanted to kiss me, he went in to take care of my children. He is supposed to have almost no contact with me to avoid exposing myself and he had him on him all the time. I denounced it and they ignored me. 'The man fell in love,' his boss told me, apologizing to him," the trafficking victim told Clarín in December 2017.

Angel "Mono" Ale, angry with Susana Trimarco, mother of Marita Verón, during the trial against him in Tucumán. Photo La Gaceta

After testifying against the Ale clan, "María" entered the Witness Protection Program of the Ministry of Justice of the Nation on October 30, 2014. But there she had a very bad time, largely because the operator on whom her daily life depended began to isolate her and tried to abuse her. It prevented him from talking on the phone, cut back on his spending, and was constantly hinted at in person and via chat.

The young woman denounced him and in July 2017 she fled the Program with her two children. For a long time his case – despite the conviction of the Ale – seemed to have come to nothing: neither the criminal case nor the administrative investigation against the operator prospered.

Almost two years after the witness in the Ale case made public her claims of serious irregularities within the Program, on September 19, 2019, the Administrative Investigations Prosecutor's Office (PIA) formally asked the then Minister of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation, Germán Garavano, to activate several investigations in this regard.

According to the opinion of the PIA, prepared by prosecutor Sergio Rodríguez, three women – two of them victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation – denounced irregularities, abuses and coercion by this agent, one of the oldest in the Program, in recent years elevated to the category of National Directorate of the National Program for the Protection of Witnesses and Accused.

In the end, only the case of "Maria" was able to move forward.

Although it was not easy: the first complaint made in 2017 before the Attorney General's Office for Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Protex) went back and forth between Tucumán and Buenos Aires until it was lost and had to be rebuilt. It was the second case, initiated on March 15, 2019 by the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit on Violence Against Women (UFEM) that reactivated the case.

Finally, the two cases were handled together by Judge Servini de Cubria and prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan. "Maria" did not have much hope left that it would advance, she feared that time would pass and the file would prescribe.

The 200-page ruling gave him some relief.

MG

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