no economic needs. Once the vote by mail was processed, among the addresses where the ballots were supposedly collected were several properties linked to the matriarch of the Flores clan,

Juana Torres

, grandmother of one of the detainees, the

number two

from the socialist list

Francisco Bartolome Flores

.

“100, 200 euros and more,” they assure

THE WORLD

a group of young Argentines who work in construction in the town. They have not been offered anything, they do not have nationality and cannot vote, but they know first-hand of the marketing that has occurred with voting by mail. No neighbor wants to say it loud. Mojácar is a small municipality where everyone knows each other and an “inconvenient” comment can end the customers of any business, but the existence of an alleged vote-buying scheme to falsify the results of the

28-M

It was an open secret in this tourist town on the Almeria coast.

The tobacconist of Juana Torres, grandmother of one of the detainees.

ESTHER GOMEZ

That is why there was not much surprise when last Wednesday agents of the

Central Operating Unit

(UCO) of the

Civil Guard

They carried out a dozen searches and arrested seven of their neighbors, including the

number two

of the PSOE candidacy for the municipal elections, Francisco Flores, and the

number five

,

Christopher Vizcaino

. “There were rumors and people commented on it”, but “who was going to say that in the end it would be true?”, comments a worker at the gates of the PSOE headquarters in Mojácar. “Of course, that's why they were so sure that this time they were going to win,” adds his partner.

The PSOE candidate for mayor,

Antonio Zamora

He flatly denies it, distances himself from his fellow party members and insists that he was “absolutely oblivious” to “undemocratic” practices that, if they had occurred, would discredit the rule of law, “he specifies.

Playa Juana, part of the route of the alleged pot hole.

ESTHER GOMEZ

Francisco Flores was the second in command of the Mojaquero PSOE but there are those who say that he really was the

number one

in the shadow. His father,

Bartolome Flores

, was mayor of Mojácar and socialist senator. And his family has always been closely linked to the PSOE, so much so that there was a time when historical figures from the party, such as

Alfonso Guerra

They went to town to accompany them at family events.

His name, like that of the

number five

from the list, it will be on the ballot next Sunday because there will not be time to change it, explains Zamora, although he assures that he will ask them to resign from the councilor's act if they are elected. Something that seems more than likely, especially in the case of Francisco Flores, based on the position he occupies in the candidacy and the results of the last elections.

Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez, at the Aku Aku beach bar in 2016.

AND. m.

Manolo Zamora has made public that on May 16 he denounced at the Civil Guard headquarters in Garrucha (Almería) alleged crimes along the same lines by the

PP

of Mojácar and the until now mayoress,

Rosa Maria Cano

. In the complaint, to which EL MUNDO has had access, Zamora accuses the

popular

to use the electoral census for their own benefit, as well as that many beneficiaries of the food baskets assigned by the Social Services and distributed by the mayoress and the councilors would be voting by mail. As proof, Zamora provided a photograph in which the mayoress is seen together with a beneficiary of said basket and on the table several envelopes of the vote by mail.

Meanwhile, the popular mayoress of Mojácar stays away from the spotlight and has avoided making any assessment of what happened, although the news, just a few days before the appointment with the polls, may affect the vote of some Mojaqueros.