The Independent Union of Education Workers in Mexico (SITEM) in Querétaro denied having been part of a presumed fraud committed against affiliated teachers and accused the MORENA deputy Gilberto Herrera of using the case as political booty. During a press conference, the general secretary of SITEM, José Luis Medellín, denied that the organization is related to the foundation Mexico de Mil Colores, which, according to those affected, was used to commit the alleged illicit act. Although some teachers claimed that it was the union that summoned them to its offices prior to the fraud, the union leader suggested that the incident could have been orchestrated by "external elements." "There are external elements, (...) there is a complaint in the prosecutor's office and for this reason the legal team is going to take charge of all this type of situation, and in the end the only thing we intend and want to do, and must do because in the end we don't owe anything, we don't fear anything and we are not involved in anything, we have to make the pertinent statements," he said. Medellín Gutiérrez assured that he is unaware of the number of teachers allegedly affected, or the modus operandi of those responsible. However, he stated that the group will cooperate with the State Attorney General's Office to clarify the facts. In addition, he pointed out to Deputy Gilberto Herrera—who apparently accompanied the affected parties to file their complaint—for wanting to "hang on" to the situation to infiltrate SITEM for political attack purposes. "From here I make a call to Gilberto Herrera: this union is honest, this union is well united, and we are not going to allow external elements to start making noise in the internal affairs of a union organization," he exposed. According to complaints from the teaching profession, published on social networks, the fraud began when apparently SITEM promised the delivery of economic support to its affiliates, when in reality it would have used them to obtain money from personal loans. The union, presumably, would have asked the workers to hand over personal documents to receive an amount, which they then had to share with the foundation Mexico de Mil Colores and the union; however, the affected began to receive payroll charges for supposed loans acquired in their names. Currently, SITEM has about 500 affiliated teachers, without the number of presumed defrauded being known.
