This Sunday, the list of women who have accused former President Óscar Arias Sánchez (1986-1990/2006-2010) of sexual abuse or harassment increased to eight.
The politician Carina A. Black, who is now 52 years old and works at the University of Nevada, Reno, told The New York Times that Arias tried to touch her and kiss her in 1998, when he visited that university as an exhibitor.
The abuse occurred in an elevator. As reported by Black, Arias pushed her against the wall of the elevator, put his hands on her breasts and tried to kiss her. He added that she pushed him and slapped him, but because she wasn’t injured she decided not to report the incident.
The New York Times said the Arias case is “the most significant of the #MeToo era in Latin America.”
The other alleged abuses occurred in different places and at different times.
The first woman to denounce Arias was a doctor named Arce, who reported that in 2014 she went to the house of the former president to discuss issues of nuclear disarmament, a cause that she promoted worldwide. There, when she turned her back on Arias to pick up her belongings and leave, the former president took her from behind, grab her breasts and inserted several fingers into her vagina. The woman was afraid to report him at the time, given the power held by Arias. Now, in the midst of the #MeToo movement, among other circumstances, Arce dared to raise the criminal complaint.
The second woman who filed a criminal complaint was a philologist and former pageant queen named Morales, who Arias contacted through Facebook. On Holy Thursday 2015, he invited her home to give her one of the books written by him. When she was leaving, Arias blocked the door and then grabbed her breasts and kissed her by force. She wanted to report him at that time, but three lawyers recommended the opposite. On February 7th, Morales went to the Prosecutor’s Office and filed the complaint.
In the middle of the two criminal complaints several other stories popped up in social networks. Different women openly told the world how Arias allegedly harassed them or made them experience “uncomfortable moments,” such as journalist and human rights activist Emma Daily.