María (fictitious name to maintain her protection) started a new life in Lanzarote in 2022. She left Uruguay with her young four-year-old daughter, fleeing from the mistreatment that her then partner inflicted on her. Now she faces a judicial resolution that forces her daughter to have visits with her father, despite the fact that a complaint against her ex-partner, whom she accuses of committing sexual abuse against the minor, is pending resolution.
The victim narrates the situation of gender violence she experienced when she was still in Uruguay. As a result of a complaint filed by María, a Uruguayan court issued precautionary measures against her ex-boyfriend A.J.S.S. for an alleged crime of gender violence, including the use of an electronic ankle bracelet that prevented him from approaching her or the minor "from 2019 to 2022", according to her testimony. According to her version, the repeated breach of this restraining order, which was recorded on the ankle bracelet, would initiate a criminal procedure against him and could end in prison.
Fearing for her life, María asked her ex-partner to sign a permit to take her daughter out of the country and start over in the Canary Islands, in exchange she would renounce the criminal procedure and thus he would avoid prison.
"I came to Lanzarote. It was my life or staying dead there and leaving my children alone," she revealed.
Meanwhile, the Court of First Instance of Costa number 4 of Uruguay, which received the complaint for mistreatment against María by her then partner, gave María custody and parental authority of her daughter in a ruling dated last April 7, 2022. María left Uruguay to meet with her relatives, who already lived in Lanzarote, and thus flee from her ex-partner.
Despite reaching that agreement, her hell did not end there and her ex-partner pursued her to the Canary Island. "The first thing he did was threaten me, tell me that he was going to throw me off the Risco de Famara and take my life, that he would get out of jail, but I wouldn't get out of death," María testified.
According to her testimony, two months after arriving in Lanzarote, she ran into the father of her daughter in Playa Honda, who allegedly tried to abduct the girl. At that moment, the Civil Guard intervened and he spent a night in custody. Since then, María carries with her a mechanism that allows her to alert Emergencies when she is in danger.
Alleged sexual abuse of her daughter
Already settled in Lanzarote, María discovered that her ex-partner allegedly performed sexual touching and threatened her three-year-old daughter when they still lived in Uruguay. After a period of assistance from island gender violence victim resources, she reported it in March 2023 to the National Police.
The minor told her what had allegedly happened when she saw an adult couple kissing on a beach in Puerto del Carmen. According to the facts reported by María, when her daughter was between three and four years old, her father allegedly sexually abused her. This complaint was reiterated in December 2023 before the Uruguayan Justice.
Change in the visitation schedule
In October 2023, the Court of First Instance number 1 of Arrecife ratified the judgment that gave the mother "the custody of the minor". In this line, she explains to La Voz that "there is a signed agreement where he has to pay alimony, but he hasn't done so since 2020 when they still lived in Uruguay".
On December 7, 2023, the Investigating Court number 1 of Arrecife granted the request of the minor's father, where he asked that a visitation schedule be established in his favor, although the custody remained with the mother.
María opposed these visits because there is an open criminal procedure in Uruguay for the complaint of sexual assault against her daughter that she filed at the beginning of last year. In addition, she stressed that she was a victim of habitual mistreatment by her ex-partner both in Uruguay and in Spain and that the father did not comply with the payment of alimony. Although both parties now live in Spain and the case was reported in Lanzarote, due to national jurisdiction, crimes committed abroad "are not the competence" of the Spanish courts and in this case they must be resolved in Uruguay.
María has filed different complaints against her ex-partner in Lanzarote. Among them, one that narrates an episode of violence in Playa Honda, where the woman accused her ex-partner of snatching the girl from her hands and threatening to take her to Uruguay. At that time, she highlighted her fear of being murdered. Already in August 2023, she reported a new episode of mistreatment before the Command of the Civil Guard, in this case she highlighted that the father tried to approach the girl up to four times.
In her ruling, the judge dismissed considering the prejudicial procedure opened against the minor's father, accused of an alleged crime of sexual assault against the girl. At the same time, she revealed that in the Uruguayan judgment that granted custody to the mother "there is no measure" on the visitation and communication schedule with the father. Nor "any reason why he has been limited or excluded from the exercise of such right/duty" to the parent.
In this line, the Court of First Instance of Arrecife assured that there was no open criminal procedure in Uruguay for the complaint of sexual assault and that there are no convictions or precautionary measures for mistreatment either in Spain or in Uruguay. However, María's defense argued that there was indeed a criminal investigation for the complaint.
Meanwhile, the father alleged that he had not paid the minor's alimony because he could not visit her, but the Chamber determined that he cannot "subordinate the payment of alimony to the mother authorizing contact" with the girl.
"It was a terrible procedure until the last Hearing I asked for a screen and not to hear his voice or see him either because it makes me vomit and causes me nervousness or anxiety," María recalls.
In this way, the judge ruled in a final resolution that, "attending to the best interests of the minor" the modification of the judgment recognized in Spain should proceed. Thus, she resolved to set a visitation schedule in favor of the father at the Family Meeting Point, controlled by specialists, and with monthly reports of its evolution during the first three months and then every six months.
On December 20 of last year, the Uruguayan Prosecutor's Office ratified that an investigation is underway into a complaint of alleged child sexual abuse. In addition, the Public Prosecutor's Office suggested that, for the moment, "the girl should not have contact with the reported subject, bearing in mind the seriousness of the facts and the purpose of protecting children"
While María's defense requested the suspension of the order. At the same time, she highlighted that "the judge did not want to listen to the testimonial evidence of the National Police officer" who took the girl's testimony at the time of the complaint, "nor the psychological evidence of the two psychologists and the lawyer of the CIAM, who had issued the reports on abuse in September 2022, aware of these facts, has been admitted, despite the fact that they were in court to give their statement".
In this sense, the lawyer recalled that the minor's father acknowledged in court having two minor daughters "whom he has not even seen or worried about their well-being for more than a year and a half". At the same time, he requested the suspension of the agreed measures and that "a psychological report of the minor" be carried out before a new hearing.
"When one suffers violence, one gets sick and I have been too sick. Now I am taking steps forward and I do not want what this judge has processed to go unpunished," concludes María.
Despite the judicial resolution, María and her defense lawyer continue working to prevent her daughter from having to have visits with her father. For the moment, a new court order reiterated on January 25 that she must comply with the order and carry out the supervised visits by the Family Meeting Point of Lanzarote. If she does not do so, she will face a fine for each day of non-compliance.