Dozens of Latina women publicly accused City Council District 9 candidate Estuardo Mazariegos of intimidating and mistreating women at a gathering in South Los Angeles.
The allegations, first reported by the Los Angeles Sentinel, emerged Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the South Los Angeles Wetlands, 13 days before the Tuesday, Nov. 3, runoff. Current and former members of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) held a healing circle and called on the organization to investigate Mazariegos, its Los Angeles co-director, and demanded his resignation.
Mazariegos is on leave from ACCE while campaigning.
The Sentinel reported that specific allegations included Mazariegos forcibly grabbing a microphone from ACCE member Evelia Palmero during a public meeting on homelessness and, in a separate incident, allegedly screaming at and lunging toward a pregnant woman at a 2024 City Planning Commission hearing. "When he took the microphone from me, I felt humiliated, like my voice and my concerns meant nothing," Palmero said, according to the Sentinel.
Maria Espinoza, whose son was killed in gun violence, also spoke at the gathering. She criticized Mazariegos for calling his 2009 misdemeanor gun conviction "a strength" in a Los Angeles Times profile published in March.
No response from Mazariegos or ACCE to the allegations appears in the Sentinel's reporting.
The District 9 race is a runoff between Mazariegos and Jose Ugarte in a district that has been represented by a Black council member since 1963, according to LAist. Ugarte led the June primary with just under 40% of the vote; Mazariegos finished second with 26%.
