This weekend, artist Natalia Gordillo denounced, through her social networks, the alleged abusive action against her by Johnatan (Juano) Hernández and Laura Perilla, members of the Bogotan alternative rock band Electric Mistakes. According to the illustrator, she was the victim of physical and psychological aggressions by that musical collective. In a video of more than 15 minutes, the young woman highlighted that the two musicians had manipulated her to violate her. According to him, she was part of the band, as a bassist, in 2021, and collaborated with them as an illustrator for the same time.
Since she met them in March 2021, she says in her story, they generated confidence in her by the way they approached the issue of mental health. Gordillo, or Gordo Ilustra, as he is known on his social networks, ended up telling them about the anxiety and depression disorders that afflicted her at that time. This situation was mutual. For his part, Johnatan told him that he lived under Savant syndrome, “the same thing that Da Vinci suffered.” According to Natalia, Johnatan abused substances such as energy drinks, Clonazepam and Tramadol.
Although 'Juano', as Hernández is also known, had already gained a greater space in Natalia's trust, there were things that made her uncomfortable, for example, the musician's supposed eagerness to know her intimate things, particularly things about her body or her sex life. Likewise, the artist denounces, the man constantly talked about the size of his penis without her opening up the possibilities to argue about it. At the time, he points out, he preferred not to say anything because Perilla, Hernandez's girlfriend, had told him that his boyfriend's disorder placed him on the autism spectrum. For Natalia, then, those comments could be a consequence of that diagnosis.
“In that sense it seemed abusive and incomprehensive to talk about that disagreement in that situation. I felt it wasn't intentional at the time, but that changed quickly,” said Gordillo.
It was in April 2021, amid the marches of the national strike that took place in Colombia, that Gordillo stayed at the house of the couple of musicians after they convinced her. Natalia, in the midst of her anxiety, was afraid to leave that house to go to hers because of the protests. From there the atmosphere began to get darker for Natalia, because, she says, she doesn't remember several of the moments she lived in that house. What is clear in his mind is that he would sometimes wake up and Johnatan was sleeping next to him without his consent. Likewise, he remembers him touching his face or kissing her, too, without her permission.
She says that she had no power over her body and that when she woke up, in the midst of anguish, she remembers that 'Juano' tried to calm her down by offering her glasses of water that, when she drank, made her fall back into a state of weakness. Natalia says that in those days she suffered from severe bouts of insomnia, she could even go up to three days without sleep. In the musicians' house, on the other hand, every time she ate or drank something, she lost consciousness and fell deep asleep.
“I have no memory of what happened in those days, I don't know what happened to me in the house of those characters (...) When I wake up on that sofa bed, with Johnatan, he's accessing me without any consent. In all those situations I felt outside myself. They said that I had a low blood sugar because they knew that I had suffered from hypoglycemia,” he says.
According to his account, he is aware that he lost his memory about nine times. He claims that he knew that he had been the victim of abuse because of the 'bodily sensation' that he had left when he left the house of 'Juano'. He says he forgot basic things like his cell phone number or the way coffee was served.
Around May, Gordillo tested positive for coronavirus, so according to her, at the insistence of the musicians, she decided to spend quarantine at their home. It's 15 days in which he says he doesn't remember anything. In June, for his birthday, he also decided to celebrate it with them, again, under the insistence of the band members. Laura, Johnatan's partner, made a sugar-free banana cake, however, says Natalia, the cake was excessively sweet. She was told that her taste sensitivity to the sweet had probably been exacerbated by the effects of covid, a theory she believed.
Gordillo says that in addition to the fact that her life was in danger in the hands of that band, they also didn't pay her for the work she had done for them as an illustrator. Even, she says, the credits of a video that she animated were not awarded to her but were awarded to Electric Mistakes.
Around July, Natalia says, she tried to take her own life and, parallel to that, 'Juano' tried to do the same. Gordillo was kicked out of the band through a voice note sent by Hernandez. Gordo Ilustra's accounts, moreover, were not only under the management of Gordillo, but also, Laura had that same right. According to the complainant, there were messages seen or answered that she had not authorized.
The illustrator created an Instagram profile called 'We are not mistakes', in which she is collecting testimonies from other people who claim to have been victims of 'Juano'. One of the complainants is Verónica Zurita, who started working with the group as a keyboard player. According to her, on two occasions when she shared beer nights with Johnatan, she was allegedly abused by 'Juano' under a similar modality. She says that the taste of her beers got a little sweeter when she left the drinks without her supervision and under the power of the musician. After that, he denounces having felt the same as Natalia, unconsciousness and being 'out of himself'.
The band, in response to Gordillo's complaints, has declared that the accusations are insulting and out of context. They clarify that the payments for the work of the illustrator were made “I have publicly shared my psychiatric conditions in order to promote mental health care. The syndrome I suffer from classifies me within the autism spectrum and therefore I have neurodivergent social behaviors when it comes to interacting (...) although I can understand that people who feel burdened by how I search for musicians, or try to make friends, there are no grounds to say that I have violated any woman,” commented the vocalist and founder and of the group.
Keep reading: