The Attorney General of Morelos, Fernando Blumenkron, announced Wednesday that he has granted the protective measures required by María Felicia Jiménez after she reported the assaults by former Pemex CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla (2024-2026). “The Morelos Women’s Justice Center granted the protective measures that the victim requires or may require while in Morelos,” Blumenkron told the media. Jiménez also revealed Wednesday that she has filed a formal complaint against the former official with the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office, where she is currently located. There are two separate investigations related to the case: one opened ex officio by the Morelos Attorney General’s Office and another filed by Jiménez with the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office.
Last Friday, Jiménez shared a video on social media showing Rodríguez Padilla struggling with and hitting her at her home in Emiliano Zapata, a municipality bordering Cuernavaca. The images sparked a wave of public outrage, reaching even the National Palace. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum assured that the government would not protect anyone. “Let the full force of the law be applied,” she said during her morning press conference. Blumenkron stated that the Morelos Public Prosecutor’s Office will have the necessary procedures “to act accordingly” if Jiménez addresses the events that occurred in Morelos in her complaint. “These are events that have transcended the state,” he emphasized.
Jiménez, a PhD in Nuclear Physics Engineering, recounted this Wednesday that the video, recorded on March 15, is just one image of violence committed “over a long period of time.” “These have been complicated days, emotionally and physically; exhausting […] I had to make a decision, to report the domestic violence I had suffered,” the doctor explained regarding her decision to publish the video on her social media. The disturbing recording was made in her home and in the presence of her seven-year-old son, who runs to one of the rooms after the struggle begins. After posting the video, she asked for protection.
Sharing the images was difficult, according to Jiménez, as it also meant exposing the child’s situation. “Exposing myself and my child was very difficult. But I think that the act of getting up every day and looking in the mirror is something that gradually destroys you internally, until you say ‘enough is enough’ and see that the other person isn’t affected in any way,” she continued. Jiménez stated that this violent behavior began in 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been married since 2019. “The pandemic brought out the worst in all relationships […] I started to normalize it,” she said.
Jiménez also explained that the child’s exposure to this behavior led him to internalize Rodríguez Padilla’s actions. “You look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m worthless,’ you see yourself as ugly. The fact that the child starts repeating patterns is even harder,” the complainant stated, adding that her son was exhibiting “attitudes that are not typical for his age.”
The doctor had announced last Monday that she would formally file her complaint against the former executive of Pemex, the country’s most important state-owned company, and that she would meet with the Undersecretary in charge of the Women’s Secretariat, Ingrid Gómez, who has been providing her with support throughout the legal process.
Rodríguez Padilla was a classmate of Sheinbaum’s at university, and it was she who appointed him to head the state oil company in September 2014, a position he held until his resignation in May of this year. The president’s condemnation (the application of “the full force of the law”) was followed by silence from the most prominent members of the ruling party, Morena. From the Government, only the Women’s Secretariat initially condemned the attack, and the Energy Secretariat published a statement clarifying that it has no employment relationship with the now former official.
Source: elpais
