Uruguayan senator accused of sexual abuse of minors loses immunity

With that, Penadés, a prominent senator from President Luis Lacalle Pou's center-right ruling party, was made available to the courts.

Unanimously, the Senate voted in favor of losing the immunity requested by the Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which took statements from eight alleged victims and is aware of four more.

The majority of those who testified “were young” at the time of the abuse and exploitation, most of them “13 and 14 years old”. The events that occurred spanned several years, including a testimony from 2020, according to details of the case revealed during the session.

“In an old case, the victim was just a boy from a football team that Penadés himself organized when he was still a teenager”, says the MP document.

Provided for in Law 17.815 of 2004, the crime of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents carries a penalty of two to 12 years in prison.

“The suspension of the privilege does not imply an attribution of responsibility to the senator. What this entails is being able to deepen the investigation and eventually request the initiation of criminal proceedings,” Public Ministry spokesman Javier Benech explained to AFP.

Penadés, 57 years old, who asked for leave from the Senate and also from the presidency of the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasul), which he holds this year, never opposed the loss of immunity, but “categorically” denied the accusations.

On Tuesday, the parliamentarian left the ruling National Party, in which he had a long parliamentary career since he began acting in politics in the 1980s.

Allegations

The Attorney General of the Nation, Juan Gómez, ordered an official investigation into Penadés at the end of March, following public statements by Romina Celeste Papasso, a trans woman militant of the National Party.

“I'm going to talk about a pedophile that we have been involved in politics for 30 years,” Papasso said on March 26 on Twitter, stating that the man in question had paid her for having sexual relations when she was 13 and was still identified as a man.

Two days later, Papasso revealed on the HLQP television program that this person was Penadés.

On March 29, in a public statement, Penadés “vehemently” denied these accusations and mentioned his homosexual status, rejecting the possibility of being accused of being a “pedophile” for this.

“I vehemently reject offensive statements whose sole purpose is to expose me to public scorn,” he said.

Since then, other people, who did not reveal their names, told the press they had lived experiences similar to Papasso's.

A man reported to the newspaper El Observador a sexual encounter with Penadés in a motel in Punta del Este more than 20 years ago, for which the politician gave him money. He said he was 17 at the time and that Penadés knew he was underage.

Penadés once again denied these accusations on May 25, when he appeared as an interrogator in the case led by the Sexual Crimes prosecutor, Alicia Ghione.

“I did not commit any crime,” he told journalists at the time.

That same day, the history teacher at the Liceu Militar, Sebastián Mauvezin, also gave a statement, being investigated by Ghione as an alleged facilitator of Penadés' alleged sexual encounters with minors.

The professor's employment contract was terminated this Wednesday, following the Prosecutor's Office report, which was revealed during the Senate session, according to sources from the Ministry of Defense.

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