Myriam Barros' entry into politics as a councilor of the Cabildo for Lanzarote en Pie - Sí Podemos has generated discomfort in at least some of her colleagues from Las Kellys, who accuse her of having "usurped" the presidency of this association and of using it to "fuel her own political interests." "Stop speaking on behalf of Las Kellys as president because she is not, I am the president," says Eulalia Corralero, who was one of the founders of the group.
Corralero is the one who has given voice to that discontent, but she has done so after La Voz received a statement that several members of Las Kellys claimed to subscribe to. In it, they denounced the alleged usurpation and demanded that Corralero's right to occupy the presidency of the association be restored. For her part, Eulalia Corralero assures that she has nothing to do with that statement, although she affirms that its content is true.
"I don't know where that leak came from, but it is totally true," says Corralero, who affirms that, in fact, she still appears as president of Las Kellys in the National Registry of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior and that even the association is still domiciled in her house.
"The way they kicked me out is totally illegal"
In statements to La Voz, Eulalia Corralero has explained that the Las Kellys movement was born from a Facebook group that she created in the summer of 2014 and that it was the one that led to the creation of the first association "in the spring of 2016." An association that was born "with five people on the board of directors," among whom she affirms that she appeared as president and Myriam Barros "as a member."
However, in the month of June of that year, Eulalia Corralero was expelled from Las Kellys, although she later continued to participate and even attended a meeting with Mariano Rajoy together with Miryam Barros. "They kicked me out with lies," says the affected party, who denies that she had breached several articles of the association's statutes, as the association argued, as can be seen by visiting the news archive of the association's website, where legal measures against her were even announced.
"They started to invent stories to kick me out," says Corralero, who points out that they accused her "of having denied help to women from Barcelona," which "was totally untrue." In addition, she maintains that the way she was kicked out was "totally illegal" and that "there is no record" that an assembly was held in which her expulsion was agreed upon. "They don't have the papers," says Corralero, who therefore believes that "they couldn't register them" and that is why she still appears as president in the National Registry of Associations. "And if they have papers, let them take them out, they are not going to take them out because they don't have them," she added.
Despite this, Eulalia Corralero assures that she decided not to report it "so as not to get into controversies" and because she could not afford a lawyer either, and that she then decided to create another association to continue helping the cleaning ladies, Las Kellys Unión Confederadas, which she still presides over today. "And I think the time has come to unite, not to disunite," said Corralero, who believes that "maybe it's good" that "this leak has come out" to "help rethink the movement."
"She already tried to enter political groups before entering Las Kellys"
In this regard, Eulalia Corralero affirms that when she went with Myriam Barros to Moncloa last year to meet with the then President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, she understood that from the association she presides over "they wanted to unite." And it is that, she affirms that Barros herself got "in contact with her" to ask her to accompany them. "She calls me at my house and apologizes for what they had done, because they understood that it had not been the correct way," points out the president of Las Kellys Unión Confederadas, who however assures that later the relationship "became twisted again."
"I think they apologized to me because at that moment they were weakening," considers Corralero, who believes that there has been "a desire to use this entire movement in a sense that is not the one that truly helps women." And it is that she considers that "it is evident" that Myriam Barros has used the presidency of Las Kellys to launch herself into politics. "She already tried to enter political groups before entering Las Kellys and she gets into Las Kellys, at the same time in CCOO... There is a strategy there," points out Corralero when talking about the current councilor of Lanzarote en Pie - Sí Podemos in the Cabildo.
"It is very good that women are in positions of power, but that they do not divide, that they do not put obstacles in the way of women who have been working as cleaning ladies for many years and who are creating their own associations, which we know that they have at some point vetoed. Things are not done like that," she says, pointing out that she has also received offers to enter politics but rejected them, because she does not feel prepared to hold public office.
Call to Myriam Barros "to all go in the same direction"
In this sense, Eulalia Corralero affirms that she has no problem with ceasing to appear as president of the first association that was created, "but doing it well, with papers, and with things done well." "I would love to tell you this to Myriam, but she doesn't want to talk to me, she has closed herself off and blocked me everywhere," points out Corralero, who makes "a call to Myriam" and "to those who have remained at the head of the working groups" of that first association to "all go in the same direction."
"They have the support of the media and the prestige of the first association, which has been recognized in many places and has received awards, which is great, but the awards only serve to dust them off. We want this to go much further, for women to be empowered, for them to lose their fear," concludes the president of Las Kellys Unión Confederadas.
