Andrés Roemer during a UNESCO press conference in 2017.Christelle ALIX / EL PAÍS
Some of the women who have publicly accused Andrés Roemer of sexual abuse and assault have decided to take the case to court.
Yesterday, Wednesday, the first complaints arrived at the Prosecutor's Office, where the famous writer and communicator has an open investigation ex officio.
Last week, social networks picked up the confessions of some women who said they had been victims of the communicator, writer and philanthropist.
They all reported the same procedure: he cajoled them with promises of well-paid work and quoted them in the basement of his house.
Three of them, without hiding their identity, told what happened there, which turned into a cascade of similar stories, protected by anonymity or not.
United Journalists of Mexico, in an incessant trickle, has already collected the testimony of 18 women as of Wednesday.
Unesco did not take long to react and Roemer abandoned, last Tuesday, his functions as Goodwill Ambassador, a figure for those people who have stood out in the promotion of certain values and causes, in this case in favor of education and knowledge.
That same day, the Mexico City Sex Crimes Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation folder for criminal news against Roemer.
On Saturday he told this newspaper that he did not know whether or not the accusations of the victims were real, but that there were no formal complaints against him.
There already are.
The governor of Puebla, Miguel Barbosa, has joined the controversy unleashed.
In Puebla, the Ciudad de las Ideas festival is held every year, co-founded by Roemer and Ricardo Salinas Pliego, which receives state funding of 70 million pesos, according to
Proceso
.
Barbosa has indicated to this medium that they will make a decision on the festival of brilliant minds when the Azteca Foundation (from Salinas Pliego) decides on it.
"Fundación Azteca is going to have to resolve this matter very clearly in front of the people, in front of the young people, to see if Roemer can continue to be the head in the organization of this important event.
It was in the City of Ideas, behind the scenes, that Itzel Schnaas met Roemer.
She was at a table with Salinas Pliego and other friends when she was introduced by a mutual acquaintance.
Days later, the communicator summoned her to her home to talk about a future project for that festival.
The dancer recounted in a video Roemer's groping on her legs, the sexual advances and the touching that he made himself.
Then he offered her money so that on the next date she would buy nice clothes for him.
There were no more encounters of that tenor.
But the two saw each other a day before she posted the accusatory video to which Roemer later responded by making a portion of that recorded conversation public.
From this fragment, Roemer infers that the entire story of the dancer is a "plot" of senior executives of the Salinas Pliego Group against him.
This is how he told this newspaper last Saturday: "I probably have huge enemies," he said.
And he also blamed his behavior on the "very wrong patriarchal upbringing" that men have had.
"We have to learn, grow, listen, communicate, mature enormously," he said by way of apology.
Other decisions are likely to follow after the victims' complaints to the Prosecutor's Office, as predicted by Governor Barbosa with Fundación Azteca regarding the Ciudad de las Ideas festival.
It also
remains to be
seen whether or not TV Azteca will withdraw the program
De cabeza
that Roemer hosts every Sunday night on ADN40.
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