Mexico City (PA) – A state candidate of the Mexican ruling party accused of rape, whose candidacy has been canceled by the regulators for other reasons, said on Sunday that he will not allow elections in his home state unless he is granted will allow you to run.
Félix Salgado is running for governor of the troubled state on the Pacific coast of Guerrero. While two women accused him of rape, he was not charged and was allowed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party to continue running.
But in late March, election regulators ordered him to withdraw his ballot, saying he had not reported campaign spending. The country’s electoral court last week ordered the Federal Electoral Institute to reconsider that decision.
Salgado is driving a caravan of vehicles to protest at the Mexico City polling station office, and on Sunday, Salgado said that unless the decision is overturned, he will not allow the June Guerrero elections to take place without him.
“If we participate in the vote, there will be elections,” Salgado told a crowd of supporters in Iguala, Guerrero. “If he does not vote, there will be no election.”
The threat is fully credible in Guerrero, which hosts Acapulco.
Guerrero is a state affected by violence, with a mixture of drug gangs, vigilantes and militant farming groups that sometimes overlap. Elections have been partially disrupted in the past and many former rulers have been forced to step down before ending their terms.
López Obrador defended Salgado and criticized groups of women who opposed his candidacy, calling it “an attack on democracy.”
The National Electoral Institute decided in late March that Salgado had not reported the money spent during the primary trial and that his candidacy would no longer be officially recognized. But the court ordered the institute to review that decision.
Mexico will hold state and federal midterm elections on June 6.
Salgado won the nomination of López Obrador’s Morena party, despite protests by women’s rights activists. He did not personally address the allegations, although his lawyer denied them.
Salgado was not charged; the limitation period has expired in one case and the other is still under investigation.
Salgado, nicknamed the Toro, or “Bull,” is a former federal legislator and mayor of Acapulco who has been known for questionable behavior in the past. In 2000, he was filmed fighting police in Mexico City.