The paradisiacal resort of Punta Cana (eastern Dominican Republic), where the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has one of his mansions in the Caribbean, received with surprise the complaint filed in Spain against the famous artist for harassment and sexual assault of former employees, one of them Dominican, and the Dominican feminist movement is demanding a thorough investigation of the cases.
In the Punta Cana mansion, heavily guarded and difficult to access, as well as in other of his properties in Spain and Bahamas, the famous singer would have harassed and sexually abused two employees, according to a journalistic investigation of eldiario.es and Univision News in the United States and revealed Tuesday.
Although the information has been widely reported in the Dominican media, residents of Punta Cana told EFE on Wednesday that they were surprised by the news, while others said they had not heard of the matter.
Jhonny Atiles, a Dominican who told EFE that he had worked on the construction of Iglesias’ mansion, said he was not aware of the information, but valued Iglesias as an artist and his contributions to the development of Punta Cana, land that the singer met several decades ago through a friend, the late Dominican designer Oscar de la Renta.
“This has grown, in part, because of Julio Iglesias and Frank Rainieri (founder of Grupo Puntacana),” said Atiles, for whom the interpreter of the hit ‘Me olvidé de vivir’ has been “good, but very good” for the Dominican Republic.
It is “a strong problem” that “hopefully will be resolved,” a man who identified himself as Jeison told EFE, who said he has been listening to Iglesias, whom he described as “a great man,” for several years.
Iglesias, who has sold more than 300 million records worldwide from his hundred or so albums, has never hidden his love for the Dominican Republic, especially Punta Cana, located some 180 kilometers from the Dominican capital.
His house, whose access is absolutely private and with permanent surveillance, “we have to call it the little house of terror because it is a drama, a horrible thing,” said one of the two former employees, who denounced him for harassment and sexual assault.
The allegations against Julio Iglesias
The accounts of both describe sexual aggressions such as penetrations without consent, slaps, humiliations and systematic workplace humiliations to them and other female employees.
One of the women was a domestic worker and the other a physiotherapist.
According to the information that contrasted the testimonies of both with interviews to professionals who treated them for their sequels and who claim to have documents that support their working relationship with the composer.
This same Wednesday it was reported that the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office will take a statement from the two women, who hope that this complaint will serve to “ensure that no woman suffers this type of abuse by him again,” according to the legal team of the organization Women’s Link.
“When we are asked why women sometimes delay reporting, the answer lies in cases like this,” Natalia Mármol, of the Magaly Pineda Feminist Forum, told EFE.
For Mármol, “silence is not a choice, it is a survival strategy in the face of a system designed to protect the powerful aggressor and destroy the credibility of the victim”, so “we demand a thorough investigation, because ending the normalization of sexual violence begins by demonstrating that no one, absolutely no one, is untouchable”.
“It is unacceptable that public figures use their power not only to commit abuses, but to sustain a machinery of silence and intimidation that leaves victims defenseless for years,” he added.
Although Julio Iglesias has investments in the country and was granted Dominican nationality years ago, his presence has diminished considerably after the pandemic.
Since then, only the occasional visit has been reported, one of them in January 2024, reported Agencia EFE, when authorities confiscated a load of fruits and vegetables that he tried to bring into Punta Cana on a flight from the Bahamas, just when the country had detected the presence of the Mediterranean fruit fly in the area.
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