The intense search for Kataleya, the 5-year-old Peruvian girl who disappeared in Italy

“Together for Kata”. “Let’s help Kata get home.”

Messages on banners and on social media multiply as the desperate search for Kataleya Alvarezthe Peruvian girl who disappeared in Florence, Italy.

Since June 10, there has been no trace of the minorwhen she was seen leaving the building where she lived with some children and re-entering alone minutes later.

We advise

Silvio Berlusconi: The unknowns on who will inherit the magnate’s $6.5 billion empire

Pacho Cantt, the blind Peruvian driver who can drive his racing car at 180 km/h

Who was Emanuela Orlandi, the young woman who disappeared in the Vatican, whose case has just been reopened

The finding that reveals the brutal treatment of child laborers during the British industrial revolution

Her mother was the one who raised the alarm when she came home from work and did not find the minor.

Kataleya was born in Peru, but came to Italy with her family when she was six months old.

The girl lived with her mother and other relatives in the former Astor hotel. The building has been illegally occupied by immigrants, mostly Latin Americans and Romanians, since September 2022.

The Italian police launched an extensive operation to search for the girl. And the Latin American community in Florence held several marches in the streets asking to find the minor.

What is known about the disappearance of Kataleya

An official at the Peruvian consulate in Florence told BBC Mundo that the consulate has no contact with the girl’s parents, Katherine Álvarez and Miguel Angel Romero, because both are “in police custody to protect them”.

The official added that authorities had asked Peru’s consul in the Italian city not to make any statements “so as not to hinder the investigation”.

italian police evacuated the former Astor hotel and conducted a thorough investigation of the interior of the building on Sunday and Monday with forensic experts.

La Nazione, a Florence newspaper, noted that Kataleya’s parents returned to the old hotel to attend the inspection, along with General Luciano Garofano, former commander of the Ris (Italian Police Department for Scientific Research), who advises the family.

General Garofano indicated that it seemed to him “pretty clear that the girl was kidnapped”.

But he added: “Don’t ask us what happened, if she’s alive, what the purpose was, because no one can say and it would be serious to make assumptions about which we have no elements”, reported La Nazione.

Some reports in the local press indicate that the girl was seen in the company of an adult after her disappearance, but this information has not been confirmed by the Italian police.

Several Italian media indicate that the old Astor hotel where more than 100 immigrants who rented rooms lived in the place, has been the scene of disputes and violent incidents. But it is not known whether these facts are somehow related to the disappearance of the minor.

In one of the most recent incidents, on May 28, an Ecuadorian man jumped out of his bedroom window and later said he had been threatened with knives by other immigrants.

Some local media reports quote former residents of the old hotel as assuring that some residents’ behavior and constant “noise” were the cause of disputes.

community mobilization

In Peru, the girl’s maternal grandfather, David Álvarez Escalante, who lives in a district of Lima, spoke of his daughter’s desperation to find the girl and asked the Peruvian government for financial assistance to travel to Florencia.

“I feel worried and desperate in this situation […] my request is a humanitarian flight to Italy to be able to help my daughter to be by her side. I, as a father and grandfather, have to help find her,” the grandfather told Peruvian news program 24 Horas.

The Latin American community in the Italian city has organized several marches to ask that the minor be found.

Juan Manuel Núñez Rubio, chaplain of the Latin American community in Florence, announced that the Archbishop of Florence, Giuseppe Betori, has asked people to pray for the missing girl, La Repubblica reported.

“This disappearance has mobilized many people in good will who fought bravely from the first moment they heard of the disappearance, got together and started the search,” added the chaplain.

“The disappearance saddened not only the Peruvians present in Florence, but also the entire Florentine community, even from abroad, especially from Peru.”

A few days after the search began, Kataleya’s mother issued a message to local media that is still valid.

Through tears, Katherine Álvarez said, “It doesn’t matter why, why they took my daughter, but let her go. Wherever you want, in a park, in a church… Please, let her go. Please”