June 22, 2023, 5:40 PM
June 22, 2023, 5:40 PM
“Together for Kata”. “Let’s help Kata come home.”
Messages on banners and on social media multiply as the desperate search for Kataleya Alvarezthe Peruvian girl who disappeared in Florence, Italy.
There is no trace of the minor since June 10when she was seen leaving the building where she lived with some children and re-entering the place alone minutes later.
Her mother was the one who sounded the alarm when she returned from work and did not find the minor.
Kataleya was born in Peru but came to Italy with her family at six months of age.
The girl lived with her mother and other relatives in the former Astor Hotel. The building has been illegally occupied since September 2022 by immigrants, mostly Latin Americans and Romanian.
Italian police have mounted an extensive operation in search of the girl. And the Latin American community in Florence held several marches in the street asking that the minor be found.
What is known about the disappearance of Kataleya
An official from the Peruvian consulate in Florence told BBC Mundo that the consulate is not in contact with the girl’s parents, Katherine Álvarez and Miguel Angel Romero, because both “are in police custody to protect them.”
The official added that the authorities asked the Consul of Peru in the Italian city not to make statements “so as not to hinder the investigation.”
italian police evacuated the former Astor hotel and carried out an exhaustive examination of the interior of the building on Sunday and Monday with forensic experts.
La Nazione, a Florence newspaper, noted that Kataleya’s parents returned to the old hotel to attend the inspection along with General Luciano Garofano, former commander of the Ris (Italian Police Department of Scientific Investigations), who advises the family.
General Garofano indicated that it seemed to him “pretty obvious the girl was kidnapped”.
But he added: “Don’t ask us what happened, if she’s still alive, what was the purpose, because no one can say and it would be serious to make assumptions about which we do not have elements”, La Nazione reported.
Some reports in the local press indicate that the girl would have been seen after her disappearance in the company of an adult, but this information was not confirmed by the Italian police.
Several Italian media indicate that the old Astor hotel, where lived more than 100 immigrants who rented rooms in the place, has been the scene of disputes and violent incidents. But it is not known if these facts would be linked in some way to the disappearance of the minor.
In one of the most recent incidents, on May 28, an Ecuadorian man jumped from his bedroom window and later said he was threatened with knives by other immigrants.
Some reports in local media cite former residents of the old hotel who assured that the behavior and constant “noise” of some occupants was the cause of disputes.
community mobilization
In Peru, the girl’s maternal grandfather, David Álvarez Escalante, who lives in a district of Lima, spoke of his daughter’s desperation to find the girl and asked the Peruvian government for financial help to travel to Florencia.
“I feel worried and desperate in this situation […] my request is a humanitarian flight to Italy to be able to help my daughter to be by her side. I, as a father and grandfather, have to help look for her,” the grandfather told the Peruvian news program 24 Horas.
The Latin American community in the Italian city has been organizing various marches to ask that the minor be found.
Juan Manuel Núñez Rubio, chaplain for the Latin American community in Florence, announced that the Archbishop of Florence, Giuseppe Betori, asked people to pray for the missing girl, reported La Repubblica.
“This disappearance has mobilized many people full of goodwill who bravely committed themselves from the first moment they learned of the disappearance, got together and began the search,” added the chaplain.
“The disappearance saddened not only the Peruvians present in Florence, but also the entire Florentine community, even from abroad, particularly from Peru.”
A few days after the search operation began, Kataleya’s mother gave a message to the local media that is still valid.
Through tears, Katherine Álvarez said: “It doesn’t matter why, why they took my daughter, but let her go. Wherever you want, in a park, in a church… Please, let her go. Please”.
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