The Prosecutor's Office has requested a nine-year prison sentence for Pedro Manuel Salguero Moreno, manager of the Mérida Classical Theater Festival between 2007 and 2011, for continuing crimes of prevarication, embezzlement of public flows, and infidelity in the custody of documents public Salguero, former Councilor for Culture of the PSOE in Calamonte (Badajoz), already entered prison last year after a conviction for misappropriation of public funds (111,700 euros), when his position as economic manager of the Festival was reconciled with that of the Manager of the Orchestra of Extremadura. Both entities are public and dependent on the Junta de Extremadura.

The former senior official was only in jail 91 days, as published by EL MUNDO, when he obtained a job from a prison in a merit contest in the City of Calamonte , so he got the third grade, although he had not faced subsidiary civil liability.

Regarding the management of the Festival of Classical Theater of Mérida, the Prosecutor's Office now makes accusation against the former manager for the "improper disposition of public money" in the payment of several invoices to companies and individuals for services that were not provided and that even, in some cases, they were not even related to the Festival's own activity , in addition to being carried out by omitting the regulations of public contracts. There are also invoices that were issued and that were not paid due to lack of funds from the Festival, which ended in 2011 practically in bankruptcy, with an official debt close to three million and a half euros.

In parallel, the Public Ministry accuses the former manager of a crime of infidelity in the custody of public documents - for which he asks for three years and six months in prison - when the Tax Agency and the Board of Extremadura itself, after the change of The government of the PSOE to the PP in Extremadura in 2011, opened several inspection processes to try to verify the accounting of the Festival of Merida.

The second prosecuted in this case is AJM, external auditor of the Ministry of Culture, who is asked for five years and six months in prison, as a necessary collaborator and for a crime of embezzlement, according to EFE.

This whole process was opened before the arrival of Jesús Cimarro at the Merida Festival, after the elections in Extremadura in May 2011, when the Festival was on the verge of economic bankruptcy. At this time, the Festival presents a surplus in its balance sheet.

The Court of Auditors had already warned of irregularities in 2006 and 2007, whose accounts were never filed. In addition, this agency warned about two loans for a combined value of 835,000 euros requested by the Festival without the authorization of the Ministry and Finance and Budget, among other issues. The Prosecutor's Office also details now, according to the newspaper Hoy , that the former manager ordered the payment of 1,750 euros through a company of his brother-in-law to a transport company to make a shipment of fruit from Merida to the Italian town of Uzzano , an issue that is not related to the Festival.

In his statement during the judicial process, Salguero said that before his arrival in 2006 there were "no accounts or record books" of the Festival and when he agreed to the position "there were no computers." In addition, he acknowledged that he released two promissory notes but that he did not know that the Festival had no funds and that he in turn ordered a bank transfer for 100,000 euros to the Orchestra of Extremadura. Salguero admitted that he issued a promissory note for 24,000 euros in favor of the Hidraulica y Mecánica, SL entity in anticipation of a study that aimed to make the seats more comfortable for spectators, but "said study was not completed by said company" and not made claims for advance payment. This company ended up closing.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • theater
  • culture

Alberto Conejero Theater: "I look at the present with stupor and some fear"

Culture Low culture spending in Spanish households by 5%

The Paper SphereMaría Douglas, the lady of the dawn of the Mexican theater