López Obrador defends Salgado Macedonio against the INE: "Sanction him, but do not take away the right to participate"

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his press conference at the National Palace this Tuesday.Sáshenka Gutiérrez / EFE

If Félix Salgado Macedonio has something in Morena, they are leaders who defend him.

Among the political endorsements that the candidate for governor of Guerrero has won is that of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who this morning spoke of the decision of the National Electoral Institute (INE) to cancel Salgado's candidacy for not presenting the pre-campaign expense report required by law. “Can't a sanction be imposed other than taking away the right to participate?

Let the people decide if they are a bad candidate ”, said the president in the morning conference this Tuesday, from the National Palace.

"Wanting to prevent by slogan that a candidate does not participate, is it not an offense to democracy?", Has questioned López Obrador.

The INE canceled two weeks ago Salgado's list as governor of Guerrero for not detailing the income and expenses he made when he aspired to be Morena's candidate in Guerrero.

In complete disagreement with the decision, Salgado Macedonio escalated the matter before the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judicial Power (TEPJF), which returned the case to the INE so that in the next few hours it could decide on a new sanction that would allow him to stand in the elections, or on the contrary, maintain the initial decision and cancel the candidacy.

Meanwhile, the candidate has installed himself at the gates of the electoral authority together with a group of followers to pressure and has declared war on the seven councilors who voted against him, including the president of the INE, Lorenzo Córdova .

The licensed senator went so far as to say that he would pick up counselors at his home if they ruled against him.

“Wouldn't the people of Mexico like to know where Lorenzo Córdova lives?

Would you like to know what your black sheet house is like?

Little bastard.

He does not know what we are fighting for in Guerrero, ”said the former candidate outside the INE facilities.

On stage, a huge black coffin with the name "Lorenzo" and the inscription "Count the days, rat, demon", accompanied Salgado Macedonio.

On one side, a wreath of flowers next to the face of Córdova and the councilor Ciro Murayama, under the legend: “Councilors of the PRIAN”, completed the gloomy altar.

• The child soldiers of Guerrero cry out against the narco armed and with shots in the air

Faced with an escalation of threats against the electoral authority, the Secretary of the Interior and the president himself have had to restrain their candidate and remind him that Morena's struggle is peaceful and in accordance with the law.

“We must fight against fraud in a peaceful way.

No to violence ”, said López Obrador this Tuesday, not missing the opportunity to express the distrust that he has in the INE.

"The electoral environment is also frayed by those who commit fraud, I am not justifying it, just because the matter is not seen in a comprehensive manner, not just part of it," the president reproached.

López Obrador has pointed out that the same advisers who now make the decision against his candidate are those who in 2012 did not detect Odebrecht's links with Enrique Peña Nieto's campaign.

This Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., the General Council of the INE will meet again to decide the electoral future of Salgado Macedonio in Guerrero and Raúl Morón in Michoacán.

Asked whether his government will carry out a reform of the electoral institute, López Obrador has referred that if it is necessary to safeguard democracy, it will carry it out.

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