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Morena confirms Félix Salgado Macedonio as candidate for governor of Guerrero

2021-03-13T04:52:36.944Z


The party supports the politician despite complaints of rape and does not give in to internal and societal pressure after the scandal


Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has confirmed Félix Salgado Macedonio as its candidate for governor of Guerrero.

The controversial case of the politician, on whom two complaints of rape and at least three other accusations of abuse and sexual harassment weigh, culminates in his ratification as a standard-bearer in the electoral campaign.

“The people of Guerrero evaluated and made a decision.

We are obliged to respect it, ”the party said in a statement on Friday.

Despite the political storm raised within his own party, the protests of the militants, the demands of the legislators and the feminist demonstrations, the electoral aspirations of Félix Salgado have not moved an inch.

On the contrary, they have been backed by the leaders of Morena and by López Obrador himself.

The candidate has been the winner of the internal consultation carried out by the group to find out who of its militants was most popular among the people of Guerrero.

A poll leaked to the media anticipated Macedonio's victory, but the party had not confirmed the information.

In the demoscopic exercise endorsed by Morena, Salgado continues to take advantage of the other applicants, but with a smaller difference.

"In the new poll, Félix Salgado Macedonio was the best positioned, so the National Elections Commission ratifies him in the candidacy," the party reported this Friday night.

Among the other applicants were Adela Román, mayor of Acapulco;

former PRD deputy Beatriz Mojica;

the ex-mayor Luis Walton;

the former mayor of Atoyac María de la Luz Núñez;

Senator Nestora Salgado and Esther Gómez, responsible for Morena's organization plan in Guerrero.

At the end of 2020 the road to the candidacy seemed paved until the complaints of rape appeared.

One was presented in 2017 by a worker from the newspaper

La Jornada de Guerrero

, when the politician was director of the medium.

The other was put by a woman who claims to have been raped by Salgado in 1998, when she was a minor and the candidate also aspired to the governorship of the State.

The scandal was huge and Morena's Honesty and Justice Commission tried to clear up the situation with an internal investigation to determine the probity of the candidate.

The committee made an ambiguous decision: it put Salgado's candidacy on hold, but unanimously determined that the accusations were "inappropriate" and "unfounded" and that it would repeat the polls to determine which candidate was the best for the next June elections, the largest in the history of Mexico.

Despite this exercise in political transparency, it was questioned whether there was a real intention in Morena to change its standard-bearer.

According to electoral law, the party only had until March 1 to replace its candidate.

After that, he could only change Salgado's name due to death, if he was disqualified, or if the candidate decided to resign.

After that day, the Guerrero Electoral Institute ratified Macedonio's candidacy as there was no final judgment against him.

Born in the Tierra Caliente region, Salgado has a long history as the founder of the PRD in Guerrero.

He has been a deputy, mayor of Acapulco, a senator of the Republic and twice a candidate for governor for said party;

in 1992 and another in 1999. The last 32 years have served him as training to forge an unshakable political character and to occupy practically all the positions of power in his land.

From the beginning, he has had the support of the Morena leaders who have closed ranks around him.

From the president of the party, Mario Delgado;

the Senate Majority Leader, Ricardo Monreal;

even the president himself, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The president downplayed the questions and accusations made against his candidate and came to describe them as a "media lynching."

A campaign orchestrated by the opposition and the media.

For López Obrador, Salgado's candidacy has been unshakable.

In Morena, he is considered the candidate with the most possibilities of taking the State of Guerrero from the PRI and the leader in all the polls.

The decision represents a blow to the feminist movement, against a candidate with accusations of sexual violence aspiring to be governor in one of the states with the highest rates of femicidal violence.

Nor has the decision gone well among the feminist bases of the party and more than a hundred legislators of the group who have demanded their leaders withdraw the candidacy since the first complaints were known.

"To register Félix Salgado is to erase with a stroke of the pen the legislative effort that the women of Morena are making, the struggle of women in the streets and the feminist movement in Mexico," said deputy Lorena Villavicencio, in a forum organized by THE COUNTRY.

The result of the poll for many and many was sung: Macedonio will be on the ballot.

Despite the controversy, there has never been any legal impediment for Félix Salgado Macedonio to stand in an election and be the next governor of Guerrero, even when he continues to have an open case against him in the State Prosecutor's Office for the crime of rape.

If before the scandal someone did not know who the politician was, now his name is on the lips of all voters.

For better and for worse.

"There is a bull," he wrote on social networks during the controversy.

His future will be decided at the polls.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-03-13

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