Elisa Ayon Hernandez took a leave of absence from her post after videos showing her acting in a vulgar, dictatorial and potentially corrupt manner surfaced on YouTube last November.
On the video, which was circulated widely on social media, Ayon is seen insulting city employees working in the department responsible for the city’s cemeteries and demanding their resignation. Her crude language and overbearing demeanor led to an outpouring of criticism and accusations that the old-style tyrannical methods often employed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were still very much alive. More pertinently, said her critics, was that she had acted way above her responsibilities. Many of the flowery and crude phrases she used in the video are open to interpretation, but one in particular, “agarren pero repartan” (loosely translated as “grab what you can but share it around”), is proof to some that she was overseeing a palm-greasing operation in the city’s cemeteries.
Worse was to come. Further tapes emerged suggesting Ayon had demanded downtown store owners pay the city 500,000 pesos to remove ambulant vendors from outside their premises.As city hall began an internal investigation into the allegations, Ayon took a undetermined leave of absence, while protesting her innocence and arguing that the accusations were a ploy to denigrate the PRI.
Her party, however, was not impressed with her conduct. In December, the PRI hierarchy in Jalisco petitioned the National Executive Committee demanding her swift dismissal from party ranks. (Ironically, Ayon had previously been removed as PRI state president for her rudeness and crude language.)
Although the State Attorney General’s Office has acknowledged that it is aware of the accusations made against Ayon, chief Carlos Najera said Guadalajara city hall has not filed a denuncia against her. Neither has the internal municipal investigation advanced substantially, sources say. The Jalisco Congress has also asked to see documents related to the scandal.
Meanwhile, Ayon, a former teacher who has been the butt of a slew of cartoons and jokes over the past three months, refuses to fade into the background. Cut off from her party, she seems more determined than ever to stand her corner, profess her innocence and return to work – if only as an independent councilor.
On Tuesday, as the Guadalajara city council reconvened after the holiday, Ayon surprisingly turned up at city hall and made an immediate beeline for her old office, where she found two guards standing outside the door, which was padlocked. Undaunted, she called a locksmith, who successfully removed the padlock. She then entered her office – that now boasted the name plate of her substitute as councilor, 22-year-old Akemi Isabel Rizo Garcia – and stayed there for the next 30 hours, insisting on her legal right to return to her position as a city councilor.
No one, especially PRI Mayor Ramiro Hernandez whose credibility has been damaged by the scandal, rallied to her cause.
After spending the night at her old desk, Ayon finally abandoned the building, stressing that her campaign for redemption would continue. Meanwhile, the city’s legal officer suggested the municipality would file a criminal complaint against Ayon for forcing the padlock to her former office.