The Attorney General’s Office issued a statement on the case of sexual exploitation discovered in a whiskey bar in Pueblo Centenario (Durazno).
He points out that in the investigation “at no time is sex work questionedwhich represents a legal activity in Uruguay following certain parameters”, but that “Yes, the sexual exploitation of people is prosecuted due to the serious damage that this causes for society as a whole and particularly for the victims.“.
This statement arises from the fact that the lawyer for the owner of the whiskey, charged in the case, alleged that the women who worked in the nightclub they did it voluntarily Y without benefits “because of what the girl arranged with the client”.
The prosecutor in the case Alicia Ghione told The Observer that the 44-year-old defendant “clearly charged them per customer and per time.” Also, He “fined” the women if they left the whiskey with the client and even closed the doors of the premises’ rooms so that they could not leave.
On Thursday, December 1, the Special Crimes Investigation Department raided the premises where 17 women of legal age were sexually exploited while they lived there. According to lawyer Nicolás Ghizzo, his client owned two padrones. In one, the whiskey was operating without the corresponding authorization due to the “delays” due to covid (he affirms that it was in the process of regularization), and in the other there were several rooms for sexual encounters.
Ghizzo said to The Observer that “in the investigation folder are all the audios (from WhatsApp). All (the victims) dThey testify in favor of him because no one has treated them like him.”. However, the prosecutor said that this simply “It is not like this”.
The prosecutor explained that before the raid they only spoke with two women, due to the sensitivity of speaking with victims before a procedure, and that the statements of more victims are still missing. In any case, she claimed that There are no women who have stated that they want to testify in favor of the accused.
