For the moment, the Morena Honesty Commission has stopped Félix Salgado Macedonio's candidacy for governor of Guerrero, accused of rape and sexual harassment.
The Commission has unanimously decided to reinstate the candidate selection process for the elections next June.
The decision was made known late on Friday and is the result of pressure from the feminist movement within, after both the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and senior party leaders refused to request the withdrawal of the candidacy.
It remains to be seen whether Salgado Macedonio will be able to present himself or his candidacy will be definitively withdrawn.
In a unanimous vote, the three women and the two men who make up the Commission to determine the suitability of the candidates in accordance with the principles and bylaws of Morena, have decided to close the internal investigation that they opened ex officio after it was known that Morena's applicant had at least two complaints of rape and three other accusations of sexual harassment and abuse.
Eloísa Vivanco, Zazil Carreras, Donají Alva, Alejandro Viedma and Vladimir Ríos concluded that given the facts, the probity of the candidate cannot be guaranteed so far.
The Honesty Commission is not empowered to investigate the complaint of violation against Salgado Macedonio, a task that corresponds to the Guerrero Prosecutor's Office.
It can, however, remove the politician from the electoral race until the court makes a decision.
The 'Salgado Macedonio case' has shaken Mexican politics in recent weeks and has put the president himself on the ropes, who came to describe the accusations against Salgado Macedonio as lynching.
74% of Mexicans believe that the president should oppose the candidacy, according to a survey by SIMO Consulting for EL PAÍS published this Friday.
Seven out of 10 Guerrero voters also reject the Morena politician's nomination and 41% are in favor of the president withdrawing his support.
Only 5% of the population called to vote in the entire country approve of the support provided by AMLO.
This same Friday, more than 500 legislators and members of Morena increased the pressure on the party with a letter in which they opposed the candidacy of Salgado Maceodnio.
"In Morena there is no place for abusers and we express our rejection of Salgado Macedonio going ahead with his candidacy," the militants said in the document.
The party's Honesty and Justice Commission was conducting an internal process following the rape accusations planned against the senator.
It has been the most forceful position from the party and the Government, and is backed by figures such as Nadine Gasman, the president of the National Institute of Women and a member of the expanded Cabinet of López Obrador, and Citlalli Hernández, Morena's secretary general and number two of the party.
Some opposition deputies celebrate that at least the pre-candidacy is stopped as it was known until now: “A resolution that should be more forceful, but that leads to Salgado Macedonio not being a candidate for governor.
It is necessary that the investigations continue to do justice ”, has written the deputy of the Citizen Movement, Martha Tagle in her social networks.
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