The Uruguayan Senate on Wednesday suspended the parliamentary privileges of Senator Gustavo Penadés, who has been under investigation for two months on multiple allegations of sexual abuse and the exploitation of minors.
Penadés, a prominent senator in President Luis Lacalle Pou’s centre-right government, lost his parliamentary immunity and became available to the courts.
The 30 senators and Vice President Beatriz Argimón unanimously voted in favor of the violation requested by the judiciary at the request of prosecutors, who have reportedly heard eight alleged Penadés victims and have at least four others.
Most of the witnesses were “young” at the time of the sexual abuse and exploitation, mostly “13 and 14 years old”, and the events occurred over several years, with one testimony even dating back to 2020, as per the file emerges during the session.
“In an old case, the victim was just a child in a football team that Penadés organized himself when he was a teenager,” the prosecutor’s document said.
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Penadés is under investigation for the crime of retaliation or promise of retaliation against minors for sexual or erotic acts, provided for by Law 17.815 of 2004, which carries a prison sentence of two to twelve years.
“The lifting of the privileges does not imply any assignment of responsibility to the senator. Rather, it implies the possibility of deepening the investigation and eventually requesting the opening of criminal proceedings,” prosecutor spokesman Javier Benech told AFP.
Penadés, 57, who weeks ago applied for a license from the Senate and the presidency of the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur), which he holds this year, has never spoken out against his impeachment but has “absolutely” denied the allegations.
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On Tuesday, the MP resigned as a member of the ruling National Party, where he has enjoyed a long career since taking office in the 1980s.
The nation’s prosecutor and attorney general, Juan Gómez, ordered an ex officio investigation into Penadés in late March after public statements by Romina Celeste Papaso, a transgender campaigner with the National Party.
“I’m going to talk about a pedophile, we’ve been in politics for 30 years,” Papaso said on Twitter March 26, noting that he had paid her to have sex when she was 13 and still identified as male .
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Two days later, the young woman, in her 30s, revealed on the television show HLQP that this person was Penadés.
On March 29, in a public statement, Penadés “absolutely” denied these allegations, alluding to his homosexuality. He denied that he could be accused of “pedophilia” for this reason.
“I reject, with the utmost vigor, offensive language, the sole purpose of which is to publicly ridicule me,” he said.
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Since then, other people, who did not give their names, have reported experiences similar to Papaso’s in the media.
A man told El Observador newspaper about a sexual encounter with Penadés at 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 Penadés knew he was a minor.
Penadés again denied such statements on May 25, while serving as an investigator in the case of sex crimes prosecutor Alicia Ghione.
“I have committed no crime,” he assured journalists at the time.
Also testifying that day was a history teacher from the military lyceum, Sebastián Mauvezin, whom Ghione is investigating as an alleged agent of Penadés’ alleged sexual encounters with minors.
The teacher’s employment contract was terminated Wednesday following the prosecutors’ report released at the Senate session, Defense Department sources said.