Sebastián Villa convicted of gender violence: what the Boca protocol says

The decision of the prison court n. 2 of Lomas de Zamora to condemn this Friday a sebastian villa to two years and one month of conditional imprisonment for coercive threats and for minor injuries qualified by the bond and for having mediated gender-based violence against the ex-partner, Daniela Cortesplace at Mouth faced with the obligation to make a decision on the forward’s future at the club.

Since September 2021, the Ribera club has a Prevention Protocol and Institutional Action in Cases of Discrimination, Harassment and Violence on the grounds of Gender and/or Sexual Orientation, approved 10 months after the creation of the Department for Inclusion and Equality.

The protocol “contemplates all acts of gender-based violence that occur within the structures of the club or that affect it, as well as all people, without the need to distinguish the type of modality that links them to the institution”. In his article 3 he explicitly refers to the athletes of the various disciplines as people reached by the norm.

Situations covered include those associated with physical, psychological, sexual, economic and property violence, symbolic. And among the modalities we mention domestic, institutional, trade union violence against reproductive, obstetric, media and political freedom.

The act for which Villa was convicted would fall a situation of domestic violence against womenwhich article 6 of the protocol describes as “that exercised against the woman by a member of the family nucleus, regardless of the physical space in which it occurs, which damages the dignity, well-being, physical, mental, sexual , economic or patrimonial freedom, including reproductive freedom and the right to full development of women”.

The protocol stipulates that the Department for Inclusion and Equality it can only intervene after the presentation of a complaint in its area by the interested party or a third party. And that by virtue of this, summary proceedings can be initiated against the person reported. If there is a summary, the resolution will be responsible for the Disciplinary court of society, which can apply penalties ranging from recall to expulsion or expulsion.

Until now, the Department of Inclusion and Equality did not follow up on either complaint that fell on Villa: the one that gave rise to the trial that had his sentence this Friday and the one that Rocío Doldán brought forward against the player in 2021 for sexual abuse with carnal access.

The situation was different Jorge Martínez, coach of the Boca women’s soccer team, reported for simple sexual abuse in April this year by journalist Florencia Marco, who had worked for 11 years in the club’s press office. In that case, Boca removed Martínez from his position (he replaced him) until the judiciary issued his decision.