In the close circle of Governor Evelyn Salgado, her relatives weigh and operate: her father, Senator Félix Salgado Macedonio, conducts negotiations on behalf of the state government and issues instructions to the entity’s officials; her sister Liz Adriana Salgado Pineda is in charge of the DIF, an organization that in two years received a budget comparable to that of the local Legislative and Judicial powers; and her partner, Rubén Hernández Fuentes, is the general operational coordinator, the second most important position in the Government Office, with salary and benefits that increased significantly in just three months.
CHILPANCINGO, Gro. (Process) .– In the first part of her six-year term, Governor Evelyn Salgado, together with her family and people from her close circle, has consolidated power and political control in the state.
The dynasty headed by Senator Félix Salgado Macedonio also has allies and operators in the Superior Court of Justice, the state Congress and in institutions such as Morena and the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAG).
The governor and Félix Salgado have taken over the institutions and “they are dispatching themselves with the big spoon,” observes Salvador Rangel, bishop emeritus of the diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa.
“Salgadismo is the defeat of the project that was being built in Guerrero. To the extent that old actors retake control of politics, there is no transformation”, reproaches Luis Enrique Ríos, Secretary of Organization of the first State Executive Committee of Morena (2012-2015).
Evelyn Salgado, the first woman to govern the state, promised during her swearing-in on October 15, 2021, to root out corruption and promote transparency. “It is not a change of post, it is a radical transformation of the political and social life of our state,” she offered.
He quoted former president Juan Álvarez, originally from Atoyac: “To serve is not to serve oneself.” In his government, he said, privileges would be said goodbye.
But the shadow and participation of his father, Félix Salgado Macedonio, does not stop weighing, exposes Marco Antonio Adame Meza, director of the International Institute of Advanced Political Studies Ignacio Manuel Altamirano of the UAG.
The senator has taken over negotiations on behalf of the state government while, in the first circle of Evelyn’s government, his partner and sister were appointed to strategic positions.
Liz Adriana Salgado Pineda is in charge of the state DIF, an organization that only in two years received a budget increase of 128 million pesos, in relation to the previous period. In 2021, the last year of Héctor Astudillo’s government, the budget for the Guerrero DIF was 725 million 222 thousand pesos and in 2023 it reached 853 million 211 thousand pesos.
The resource is comparable to that of the state Legislative and Judicial powers, which exercise this year 929 million 736 thousand pesos and 967 million 37 thousand pesos, respectively, and 25 times higher than that of the State Commission for Attention to Victims (of 33 million 577 thousand pesos) in an entity that has recorded four homicides a day so far this year and a thousand displaced persons due to criminal violence.
The governor not only maintained the net salary that her predecessor had, of 73 thousand 141.79 pesos, but, at the beginning of her administration, her current partner Rubén Hernández Fuentes was appointed general operational coordinator, second most important position in the Office of the Governor, responsible for the institutional image, tours and social communication.
