Five is now the number of women who have come forward, accusing former president and Nobel Laureate, Oscar Arias, of sexual assault or misconduct.
On Wednesday, Marta Araya Marroni, 53-year-old editor of a book “Con Velas, Timón y Compass” by Arias, said that when she worked with him in 2012, during one meeting, he abruptly put his hand on her leg, which she brushed off and informed him was inappropriate. Twice after, she claims, he called her insisting that she visit his home for a massage.
Araya assured that although her experience was not as serious as the other women’s claims, she wanted to share her story to support them. In addition, she indicated that her main annoyance was that the former president tried to make her believe that his behavior was normal and that he was worried about her.
Araya told the Tico Times Arias made “multiple unwanted sexual advances over the course of several weeks in 2012 when they met regarding a book he was writing”.
“He was always respectful until he wasn’t,” Araya said.
The first case was known on Monday doctor and activist for nuclear disarmament, Alexandra Arce von Herold, filed a ‘denuncia’ (criminal complaint) against Arias, alleging he attacked her in his home in December 2014.
She told the university newspaper ‘Semanario Universidad’ that in December 2014, in Arias’ house of the former president, in Rohrmoser, when she went to leave documents.
Also on Monday, journalist ‘Nono’ Antillón told La Nacion her story of how Aria “touched her” when she worked with him 35 years ago.
On Wednesday, Emma Daly, a Human Rights Watch journalist, joined the list by revealing on her Twitter account that Arias touched her breasts when she was a reporter for The Tico Times and Reuters news agency during the 1990s and frequently covered Oscar Arias during his first presidential term (1986-1990).
Daly told her story to the Washington Post, of the incident in 1990, in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Managua, Nicaragua.
Finally, Monica Morales, journalist Perfil magazine, published on Wednesday her story of her “uncomfortable moment” with Arias, at his home, during an interview in 2013.
“At the end of the interview he went to his desk to look for some photos on his computer. There he hinted (with a gesture) that I should sit on his leg so she could see the (computer) screen. I do not know what face I made but I remember that he mentioned to me that his wife was not going to get angry. ”
“I changed the subject because I had met his wife who was on the cover of our magazine in February of that year. I told him that I had interviewed her and that she was an admirable lady.
“It did not happen anymore. There was no sexual assault, luckily. I left scared and overwhelmed. At that time I was 27 years old – although I could have been 18 or 33, and possibly I would not have known how to react,” Morales wrote.
