A serious legal and institutional controversy surrounds the imprisonment of Karla Sotelo, a digital content creator from the state of Morelos. She has been held in pretrial detention for three months at the Atlacholoaya Social Reintegration Center—located in the municipality of Xochitepec, Morelos—following her decision to file a criminal complaint against a former state official for sexual assault that allegedly occurred abroad.
According to public statements from her family and legal defense, the situation began when Karla Sotelo accepted an invitation to travel to Costa Rica from Juan Carlos Salgado Ponce—a businessman and former Secretary of Economy for the State of Morelos (and brother of federal deputy Maggie Salgado, of the Morena party)—who was traveling with his spouse.
According to accounts provided by those close to the victim, the couple proposed that she participate in a threesome during their time in Costa Rica. After Karla Sotelo explicitly refused, her hosts illegally withheld her official identification documents, including her passport, preventing her from moving freely or returning immediately to Mexico.
Upon her return to Morelos, the content creator went to the State Attorney General’s Office to file a formal complaint regarding the sexual assault and the irregularities she experienced during the trip.
However, the victim’s family reports that, following the filing of her complaint, the former official allegedly leveraged his influence within the state’s political and institutional power structure to turn the legal process against her, filing a counter-accusation of extortion. In a criminal proceeding described by civil society organizations and the defense team itself as unusually expedited, judicial authorities issued an arrest warrant for Karla Sotelo, leading to her detention and placement in pretrial custody at the Atlacholoaya prison in Xochitepec, Morelos.
Family members, friends, and human rights groups have organized protests, roadblocks, and demonstrations in the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos. They are calling for the intervention of international bodies, an impartial review of the investigative files, strict adherence to due process, and the young woman’s immediate release—denouncing the situation as a case involving the fabrication of charges and the abuse of institutional influence.
