A senator has apologized after being caught by a photographer in a racy cell phone chat during a Senate session.
A photo published by the newspaper El Universal shows the screen of Senator Ismael García Cabeza de Vaca’s cell phone during an appearance in the Senate by Finance Secretary José Antonio González Anaya.
But the country’s financial situation was not on the mind of the senator from Tamaulipas.
In the group chat entitled “Three Amigos,” an image of a scantily-clad young woman appears beneath which one of the chat’s participants, Manito, wrote: “Give me the pimp’s cell phone [number], don’t be mean, I want to screw her already.”
García responded: “That makes two of us.” Both used pig emojis during the chat.
Later yesterday, the newly-elected National Action Party senator took to Twitter to apologize for his actions.
“I offer a sincere apology for the offensive way in which I expressed myself in a private chat during the Senate session,” he wrote.
“I shouldn’t have participated in a clearly misogynistic conversation, much less so with those words. Beyond an inappropriate joke, I never had any other intention.”
Senate President Martí Batres, of Mexico’s soon-to-be ruling Morena party, said the matter would be reviewed by the upper house’s legal team, which would recommend action if necessary.
A 20-year-old university student identified as Fer Moreno later claimed that it was her photo that appeared in the senator’s chat but she didn’t know how it got there.
The photo had appeared on the woman’s Instagram account three days ago.
“At first I thought it was a joke then I realized that it had really happened, that it was true and that it was me in the photo,” Moreno told broadcaster Carlos Loret de Mola.
“I was inundated with a thousand messages to my social media insulting me, [saying] ugly things. Then I realized what had happened,” she said. The student rejected any suggestion that she was a prostitute, describing herself as a “normal girl.”
She also warned other women to take care with their social media accounts but defended her right to publish whatever photos she wished.
Patricia Mercado, a senator with the Citizens’ Movement party, described García’s conduct as “degrading and offensive.”
Kenia López Rabadán, a senator with the same conservative party that García represents, said all senators, “and in a strict sense men,” should show greater respect for all people, including women.
“I understand that it was a personal and private comment but . . . we all have to be wise with what we write, even more so if you’re a public official . . .”
During the election campaign, García — who is the brother of Tamaulipas Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca — said that if elected, he would promote laws that guarantee respect for women, the newspaper El Universal reported.
Source: El Financiero (sp) El Universal (sp)
