Ever since she grew up on a ranch in Guerrero, Paulina was used to walking at night without light.
But she has been afraid of the dark and of being alone for more than two decades.
At age 17, she says, she was raped by the current candidate for governor of Guerrero by the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Félix Salgado Macedonio.
The former senator of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's party faces several accusations of sexual abuse that tarnish his aspiration to participate in the June elections.
The appointment, which must be confirmed in the next few days, has drawn harsh criticism from more than a hundred female activists from her formation, who ask to withdraw her candidacy for these accusations, including a rape committed in 1998. These are the stories of the women. victims.
According to Paulina's testimony - who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals - the alleged attack occurred in 1998 during a visit to Acapulco in which her partner was going to meet with Salgado Macedonio for political reasons.
The trip was the perfect excuse to also enjoy the beach together with her boyfriend, so she put on the green top and skirt that she liked the most.
When she arrived in Acapulco, says Paulina, she lost sight of her partner, was left alone in an unknown city and, not knowing what to do, she asked a taxi driver to take her to that politician's house.
"I thought that by being in that house I was saved because my partner came to meet him," he says.
He remembers that an armed escort opened the door and inside was Felix Salgado.
His partner was not there.
Then he asked if "I could lend him 100 pesos for the return ticket."
"He told me to wait in the room that he was going to help me," he recalls.
Minutes later, according to her story, the politician changed his attitude and pounced on her.
“Félix Salgado Macedonio came out as if he were someone else.
He came to me without saying anything.
He took off my top with force, put his hand on my neck, raped me and with my pants down and all sweaty he looked for his wallet, took out 100 pesos and threw them in my face as if it were garbage ", says Paulina with tears in the eyes.
Testimony of denunciation against Félix Salgado Macedonio.
His complaint, filed with the Attorney General's Office (FGR) at the end of 2020, joins another complaint for violation made in 2017 by a worker of the newspaper
La Jornada de Guerrero
, when Salgado Macedonio was director of the medium.
In the file, the woman assures that in May 2016 she was drugged and raped by the politician when she was at home.
She also claims that her then boss blackmailed her by sending her husband intimate photos that he had taken of him and that the abuse continued and became more violent: “He began to beat me and raped me repeatedly,” she says in the complaint she made to the Guerrero Prosecutor's Office.
In recent days it has become known that there is a third complaint against the candidate, in this case before the National Human Rights Commission of Guerrero, when Salgado Macedonio was mayor of Acapulco, a position he held between 2006 and 2008. The then Coordinator of Services Public of the Acapulco City Council, Angelina Mercado Carbajal, denounced him in 2007 for sexual harassment, abuse of authority, intimidation and false accusation, according to the newspaper
Milenio
.
The candidacy of the strong man from Morena to govern Guerrero has been tainted by accusations of sexual abuse to the point of unleashing a political storm within the party of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In mid-January, more than 100 legislators from the group wrote a letter to the party's president, Mario Delgado, asking him to withdraw Salgado Macedonio from the electoral race.
"Whoever is a candidate for Morena has to have the minimum ethical and moral conditions and an honest way of living: If there is no gender peace, there can be no social peace," Morena's deputy Wendy Briceño told this media , president of the Equality Commission in the Chamber of Deputies and one of the signatories of the letter.
At the end of 2020, when the first complaints against him began to come to light, Salgado Macedonio said that he was not going to withdraw his candidacy, he told
El Sol de Chilpancingo
.
"If there is a complaint against me, let it be investigated."
At the beginning of January, Morena's Honesty and Justice Commission opened an internal investigation and this Friday the deadline for the candidate to appear is met.
The commission will have to evaluate if he maintains his candidacy or if it is necessary to elect another person to represent the party in the elections of June 2021, a decision that will have to be taken in the coming days.
This newspaper contacted Félix Salgado's team to find out his version, but did not receive a response from him until the publication of this article.
Brenda, a Morena activist who gave her testimony on condition of anonymity, assured EL PAÍS that during Salgado Macedonio's campaign for senator for Guerrero in 2018, the politician abused her.
“He was very drunk, he grabbed me by the head, he grabbed my hair, squeezed a little bit and began to put his tongue in my mouth.
I told him: sir, it is not correct, this is not right and I have not done anything to disrespect me.
He told me: 'nothing happens, don't be bloody [arrogant], ”says the militant.
In mid-January, the writer Marxitania Ortega related a similar event through her social networks: “He was drunk and when he approached me he did it in the worst way, lascivious, with an inappropriate hug, to say the least.
Do you know what it feels like at times like this?
Much disgust (...) You experience a lot of anger that someone feels entitled to touch your body in that way.
Testimony of denunciation against Félix Salgado Macedonio.
Long before presenting her complaint to the FGR, says Paulina, she tried to do it at the Public Ministry of her town, but she assures that they did not want to receive her testimony.
"Do you want to report this man?
No ”, he says the authorities replied.
“That man is very important, he has a lot of power.
Better go home to your family, ”they told him.
More than two decades later, when she saw the complaint made by the former employee of
La Jornada de Guerrero come to light
, Paulina decided to return to the Prosecutor's Office.
“It is true that I did not report at the time, but you do not wonder why?
Could not.
With so many deaths of women I said: maybe the same thing happens to me.
Now I do it because I don't want my daughters to be touched, ”she explains.
Sex crime experts point out that education about the importance of reporting has changed a lot in the last 20 years, but there is an ingrained cultural notion that prompts victims to remain silent to protect their lives.
The rape complaint filed by Paulina was dismissed by the Guerrero Prosecutor's Office - which received the case from the FGR - because in Mexico rape crimes prescribe after 14 years at the federal level.
Last December, the National Electoral Institute (INE) approved an initiative in order to prevent and eradicate political violence against women and prevent any contender from having open causes for rape, abuse, harassment or failure to pay alimony. of their children.
All parties approved the declaration and committed to comply with it.
"How many women have to be raped in this case?
Isn't one good? ”Says Brenda angrily.
The Guerrero Prosecutor's Office has not yet ruled on the 2016 rape complaint. In dialogue with the journalist Carmen Aristegui, the former prosecutor of that State, Xavier Olea, said that the case never came before the judge because the current governor, Héctor Astudillo - from the PRI -, asked him in 2018 not to request an arrest warrant against Salgado Macedonio.
Despite the fact that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the accusations against Salgado Macedonio as "partisan and seasonal" electoral, Paulina says she has confidence in the current Administration.
“This government has said that it will protect women.
I have seen how everything has changed, how they help people more ”, he says with confidence.
"If this man becomes governor, he will have the power to order that they take me out of my house and I don't want to be one more disappeared than anyone knew what happened to them," he says.
Now, while giving her testimony to EL PAÍS, she is dressed in green like that day in 1998. She looks out the window and sees the sea.
Take a breath and talk again.
"Where is the harm that they do to a person?
So a hundred years go by, as long as I can remember, I'm going to remember (...) I don't want any woman to keep quiet again ”.