Four and a half years have passed since the complaint broke into national politics. With a heartbreaking message, a woman made a very serious accusation: she had been a victim – she said – of multiple sexual abuses in Tucumán and Buenos Aires, between December 2017 and December 2018.
The accused was the three-time governor of Tucumán José Alperovich, who at that time was a senator and never resigned from his position nor did his political space demand it. He fulfilled his four years of popular mandate to make use of his jurisdiction and tried by all means to have the case processed in Tucumán, the cradle of his power.
According to the complaint made by the young woman, whose identity is preserved to protect it, the abuses occurred in the province and in the City of Buenos Aires, when they were traveling to carry out their duties in the National Congress.
Therefore, with the intervention of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Violence against Women, led by Mariela Labozzetta, and the prosecutor Santiago Vismara, the case was able to leave the province and was developed in the national Justice system.
“I did not abuse her. I am a 70-year-old man,” Alperovich apologized. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.
The trial began on February 5 and brought dozens of witnesses to weekly hearings. Alperovich (69) testified, for more than eight hours, also his daughter Sara and the entire campaign team that was at the “small table” in which the complainant and the accused participated.
“I didn’t abuse her, that’s a lie. I am a 70 year old man“, he said about the complaint of the woman, who is the daughter of his first cousin. “They are titles that are given, they say that she is my niece but she never called me uncle and I never called her niece,” he added.
There were three requests from the trial prosecutor, Sandro Abraldes, and from the plaintiff lawyers, Pablo Rovatti and Carolina Cymerman, from the Legal Assistance and Sponsorship Program for Victims of Crimes of the General Defender of the Nation (DGN), so that three witnesses were charged with false testimony.
The medal with Hebrew text that Alperovich held during his statement. Photo Luciano Thieberger
It was during the defense witness stage, led by Augusto Garrido, from the legal firm of Mariano Cúneo Libarona – who gave representation when he took over as Minister of Justice of the Nation in December 2023 – and this Tuesday his situation must also be defined. .
This is Manuel Frías, Alperovich’s waiter during the 2017-2019 electoral campaign, a period during which a then 27-year-old girl reported that sexual abuse occurred.
The same thing happened with Víctor Hugo Decataldo, a transportation businessman who ended up in a relationship with Sara, Alperovich’s daughter, and with David Cayatta, Alperovich’s former custodian and driver.
The verdict
Prosecutor Abraldes requested a sentence of 16 years and 6 months in prison for Alperovich, considering him criminally responsible for the crimes of sexual abuse – three of them attempted and six incidents of aggravated sexual violence.
The complaint demanded 22 years in prison for Alperovich and that, If convicted, be detained of the Oral Court No. 29, at 1500 Paraguay Street, without waiting for the sentence to become final.
Abraldes agreed with this request and went for more: he requested preventive detention and police custody to avoid the risk of escape, considering that Alperovich has the money, power and resources to escape and evade the sentence. Ramos Padilla agreed to police custody, which has been with him for eight days.
Most of the audiences followed them from home by video call. Photo Luciano Thieberger.
The former governor followed the trial by video call. He only appeared at the beginning – on February 5 – and at the last hearings.
He connected from home, where I smoked, talked to people behind the camera, drank coffee and avoided making gestures.
His defense was forceful: during the closing argument, in which he asked for acquittal, he spent much of the nine hours “vilifying the victim,” in the words of the plaintiffs.
Alperovich is accused of nine crimes against sexual integrity to the detriment of his niece and former collaborator. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.
Garrido raised the idea of a plot against his client, revenge because the complainant had not had a place on the list of candidates, millionaire extortion and even the idea that they had consensual relations, something that Alperovich flatly denied.
None of these speculations were clear or proven during the trial and, although Alperovich has no obligation to do so, he based his defense on that.
This Tuesday, at 1 p.m., you will have a new opportunity to speak to the judge and insist on your version of the events. He could make use of his last words, testify again, answer some accusation or another, and then, although the appeals seem to be sung, Alperovich will know his fate.
