The The Buenos Aires parliament was in turmoil at the end of the year after a case of sexual abuse came to light that would have been committed within the Senate. And behind this complaint is “The Order of Light”, an alleged sectarian logic, according to the documents accessed by EL DIA.
As this newspaper reported, La Plata’s criminal justice system is behind a horrific allegation as the attacks continued for nearly a decade. Two employees who have already been arrested are in the crosshairs. They are Nicolás Daniel Rodríguez and Daniela Silva Muñoz, who are accused of crimes against sexual integrity, which, according to judicial sources, were committed in the context of manipulation, threats and the exercise of power on both a personal and political level.
Sources in the file indicate that one of the central axes of the case is the use of political space, working ties and promises of growth within the militancy as a mechanism of rapprochement and control. In this context, the public prosecutor’s office is investigating the operation of an alleged structure called the “Order of Light”.
In this regard, according to the lawsuit, Rodríguez presented himself as a spiritual leader with alleged “special powers,” while Silva Muñoz played the role of guide or mediator, encouraging the submission of the victims. According to judicial sources, this dynamic was always used to justify the abuses, to frustrate the will of the complainants and to maintain a long-term coercive bond.
The truth is that after the arrests carried out during the night of December 29, Rodríguez and Muñoz refused to testify and their defense lawyers requested their transfer to the office of a mayor of the department.
An explosive cause that required years of investigation
The explosive case, which lasted for years and involved consistent statements from various complainants, ultimately led to arrest warrants, raids and the seizure of evidence, at the request of prosecutor Betina Lacki, head of UFI No. 2 of La Plata. The file was the subject of the intervention of the Guarantee Court No. 4, which confirmed the measures, considering that there was sufficient evidence to convict.
As published by EL DIA, according to judicial sources and spokespersons, the events under investigation date back to at least 2015 and describe a pattern of sexual abuse involving sexual abuse, psychological violence and prolonged subjugation, in some cases until 2023. The victims – whose identities are being preserved – told the court that they were subjugated in a context of power asymmetry, threats and emotional manipulation.
Issues examined include sexual assault without consent, threats with knives, episodes of intimidation, control over victims’ private and sexual lives, and increasing severity of reported behaviors. In addition, some of the abuses occurred in the defendants’ property and in areas related to their political and professional activities.
How the case continues
As already mentioned, both defendants were transferred for investigation following the arrests on the night of December 29, but both Rodríguez and Muñoz refused to testify, exercising their constitutional right, as confirmed by Judiciary spokesmen.
In parallel, the defense requested that the detainees be transferred to a district mayor’s office on the grounds that the DDI cells in which they were housed did not meet appropriate conditions, an allegation that requires a court decision.
The prosecution emphasized that the case is supported by witness statements that have coincided and been corroborated over time, as well as recently recorded documentary and digital materials. The investigation also reconstructs victims’ previous attempts to report the crime and alleged subsequent harassment to prevent the facts from reaching the justice system.
For the State Department, the case is of considerable institutional gravity, not only because of the repetition and temporal extension of the reported abuses, but also because of the power context from which they were committed, which would have facilitated the recruitment and subjugation of the victims.
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