If there’s one thing we’ve all learned from the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer, it’s that stalking should not be taken lightly. The show has also done something else – inspired dozens of women to speak up about the harassment they’ve faced from “Venezuelan Baby Reindeer” Rebeca García, who authorities only recently started investigating because they previously said “harassment between women doesn’t exist.” So what happened to her? Read on to find out.
García has been accused a long list of grievances against women. These include sending hundreds of unwanted emails, breaking and entering, defacing property with graffiti containing women’s personal details, and even writing a book full of lies about fake encounters.
One woman named Anny De Trindade, a makeup artist in Venezuela, said that García would write to her constantly on social media, call all the time from different numbers and send her unwanted gifts where she works.
“I am tired of Rebeca Garcia’s sexual harassment and I am tired of the law protecting her just because she is a woman. Rebeca is a woman who has dedicated her life to harassing innocent women,” she said in a translated tweet thread with almost 10 million views.
Claudia Aguirrezabal is another alleged victim. She claims García “came almost daily to my building, filled my entire street with graffitis with my name, my last name, my username.” Things reached a fever pitch in 2020 when García jumped on Aguirrezabal’s car and demanded to be let in. There are widely circulated videos of that incident.
It gets worse. García also sent Aguirrezabal pictures from inside her apartment with captions about a “killer” being in her house. Other violent messages include threats against anyone who touched Aguirrezabal. García’s book is called “libro para cocoaguirre.” Cocoaguirre is Aguirrezabal’s username. Aguirrezabal said she went to school with García but they were five years apart and never met.
Attempts to get authorities involved fell on deaf ears as the Venezuelan Public Ministry told Aguirrezabal and Trindade “there is no law protecting harassment of women against women.” Things changed when Aguirrezabal and Trindade’s threads went viral on X. Authorities then revealed they opened an investigation. So what happened?
García and her brother (who’s apparently also a stalker guess it runs in the family) were arrested in a Madrid supermarket about a week after things started blowing up. Venezuela’s attorney general Tarek William Saab asked for the couple’s extradition to Venezuela.
“These subjects dedicated themselves for more than seven years to stalking and harassing women and children, causing terror and fear in the victims,” he said.