The journalist Ignacio Álvarez spoke again this Monday about the case of the alleged group rape in the Cordón, in his program Fishbowl (Blue FM).
The complainant of the gang rape was recently fired, to which listeners of the radio program asked Álvarez if he felt remorse. “The truth is that I am not sorry, not at all,” replied the journalist.
“She worked as a nanny, in a house,” Álvarez said on the air and explained that her employers did not fire her for having recognized the victim’s voice in the audios broadcast by Azul FM, but rather they found out from “a friend of hers.” that, according to what the journalist learned, she was sure that what had happened in the Cordón had not been a rape.
Álvarez reiterated that the complainant’s accusations were a lie, from his point of view. “There is nothing that can prove that this was rape,” he said. The journalist stated that this turned the alleged victim into a liar, so he questioned his ability to perform his job: “It’s being in contact with children, are you going to leave someone who lied like that in the care of your children?” he asked the audience.
To underline his point, the journalist added that the alleged victim had been certified for several months due to the psychological consequences that the Cordón episode had caused him. “He couldn’t work but he could go out partying,” Álvarez questioned on air, after admitting having access to the victim’s Instagram posts.
Álvarez’s release to the air was a response to the precautionary measures imposed by the 2nd round Family Court of Appeals so that the journalist does not try to approach or communicate with the victim. As he published The Observeron February 19 Álvarez communicated with the complainant’s sister through her Instagram account, offering him “a way to help everyone so that this ends in the best way”.
The court took the communication as a test of psychological violence. “Do you realize the head of the Uruguayan judges that we have in a Court of Appeals?”questioned the air.
The technical team of the Judiciary made a report on the victim, and there it was determined that the messages “increased the anguish and fear” of the complainant, which caused “her daily life to be affected and, especially, her family environment and that it caused negative effects on their work.”
The journalist justified that he was trying to “give the alleged victim a chance to offer his version of the events. Do I want to control his behavior? Is this what the Uruguayan Justice interprets?”
Álvarez defended that his mission was to “recognize the truth”, while the complainant does not want the subject to continue to be discussed. “You don’t want to because it doesn’t suit you, you don’t want the truth to be known because you look bad“, Said the journalist and assured that the complainant fears that her façade as a victim will crumble.
She affirmed that the men denounced are only guilty of threatening her with spreading an intimate video, not of rape. “Be careful, because in the name of that supposed fragility (of women) terrible injustices like the one being committed now can be committed,” she warned.
Álvarez affirmed that he will continue “investigating everything he wants”, since he defends journalistic work so that “the truth of things” is known. “If they want to take me to jail, let them take me,” he concluded.
