El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador negó que se vaya a reconsiderar proponer a Pedro Salmerón –señalado por acoso sexual contra alumnas del ITAM y también por militantes mujeres de Morena– como embajador de México en Panamá.
"No, because we consider that he is a capable person, I already said it last time, he is one of the best historians in this country," he replied at a morning conference.
Aseguró que no cedería en su decisión de proponer al historiador como embajador ante un ‘linchamiento mediático’ motivado por los conservadores, y que si hubiera pruebas en su contra, así como una acusación hecha por un juez, no lo defendería
"So, I'm not willing to give in those things.Now, if there is a trial, if there is evidence and is in the Public Ministry, it is in the judge, it is accused, because how we are going to defend it, in no way, but nothing more for the media campaign, for the media lynching ... ”
López Obrador pointed out that with the accusations against Salmerón he was damaging him and his relatives, so he questioned if there should be no “certain respect” with these with these.
Read more about it: "There are political interests," says AMLO after accusations of harassment against Pedro Salmerón
“¿Ya entonces van a haber tribunales como los de la inquisición? Nada más porque hay denuncias de sectores, si no se actúa de conformidad con la ley”, también cuestionó.
This Monday, the Panama Foreign Ministry reported that it had delivered a letter to the Mexican Foreign Ministry where it expressed its position on Salmerón's proposal for the Mexico Embassy.
In this regard, the president denied knowing the content of the document;However, he dismissed that he treated the complaints filed against the historian.
“No sé, pero lo que quiero decir es que si no hay denuncias penales, no sabemos, no conozco la carta, pero no creo yo que por las denuncias que tiene que ver con el ITAM y que tiene que ver también con la postura del conservadurismo, no tengo duda de eso”, afirmó.
He admitted that he took the document by surprise when the corresponding request has not yet been sent to designate Salmerón as an ambassador of Mexico, since the previous procedure is still subtracted, such as the approval and vote in the Senate of the Republic.
At the conference last January 19, he said that who will finally approve the designation of the historian as an ambassador to Panama will be the Senate.
‘A stalker should not be ambassador’: complaints vs Salmerón
Since it was learned about Pedro Salmerón's proposal for the Mexico Embassy in Panama, ITAM students and alumni rejected the possible designation, noting that he was accused of sexual harassment during his period as a professor.
In a pronouncement of the fourth wave, student organization, the students asked to reconsider their appointment and do justice for the victims.
The Student Collective said that Pedro Salmerón also has accusations in the MetooacademicosMX account, at UNAM, as well as inside the Morena Party.
We tell you: collective, organizations and women ask Panama authorities to reject Salmerón appointment as ambassador
About the accusations against him, Salmerón responded on his Twitter account that in the evaluations carried out by ITAM students there was no “nor the slightest allusion to any act no longer harassment, not even remotely equivocal”.
However, in 2019 he resigned as a professor of the institution, after the publication of complaints of sexual harassment, through the #Metooitam account, although he pointed out that the accusations were false.
Shortly after the accusations, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, defended the proposal to designate Pedro Salmerón as an ambassador, also pointed out that there is no formal complaint, so he asked to wait for evidence.
The president said that Salmerón is a first and very prepared historian.
