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A call for justice for Luz Raquel Padilla is circulating on social media
“How long will I have to live in fear?”
That’s what Luz Raquel Padilla Gutiérrez wondered on May 17, when she tweeted photos of a threatening message spraypainted on the steps of her apartment in Zapopan, Jalisco state, Mexico.
“I will burn you alive”, “You will die machorra (cow)” it said.
A little over two months later, Padilla died this Tuesday (07/19) from burns she sustained last Saturday (07/16) when a group of people doused her with alcohol and burned her in a park near her home .
Padilla, 35, had lodged a complaint at the police station against a neighbor over living arrangements problems and alleged physical and verbal aggression, which led to an investigation.
On the same day that she published the photos of the threats, she also claimed to have been attacked with industrial chlorine by her attacker.
The Public Ministry of Jalisco this Thursday (21/7) reported the arrest of one of its neighbors, Sergio Ismael “N”, as a suspect in the crimes of “violations, threats and crimes against human dignity” following the complaint presented by Padilla.
The Undersecretary of State for Security, Ricardo Mejía, stated that the detainee appeared before the authorities on Wednesday (20 July) as a witness in connection with the trial opened on this murder.
However, he clarified that his arrest was related to that earlier criminal case and “unrelated” to the femicide case, although “eventually he could also be charged with that crime,” he said.
Credit, EPA
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Tribute during the funeral of Luz Raquel Padilla
Padilla was a mother and caregiver to an 11yearold son who was diagnosed with autism. According to the organization Yo Cuido México, of which she was a member, which brings together other carers of dependent people, “the constant death threats” were due to “the intolerance of the noises made by her son in times of crisis”.
“She devoted herself entirely to caring for her son (…). Being with her son was her life,” recalls Mily Cruz Díaz, coordinator of the Yo Cuido Mexico collective in Jalisco.
The child is currently in the care of grandmother and aunt.
The brutality of the case, the previous threats and Padilla’s frustrated pleas for protection from the authorities shocked the population and caused outrage in a country ravaged by a femicide crisis.
possible attackers
After the fact, police and city medical services went to the scene, where they found the victim with burns which the hospital later estimated to be more than 80% of the body.
Several Mexican media reports that the attacking group consisted of five people: four men and one woman, according to witnesses.
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Padilla had for months denounced threats he attributed to his neighbors
Since then, the Jalisco Public Ministry said it was conducting “various actions both on the ground and in the Cabinet to obtain information on the identity of the attackers”.
According to Jalisco prosecutor Luis Joaquín Méndez Ruiz, the neighbor who Padilla voluntarily denounced appeared on Wednesday as a witness.
Because of the alleged assaults that the young woman had reported, he was questioned and the arrest warrant issued on Thursday was issued.
“According to the first data obtained in the investigation folder, there is no information that puts this person in the place where the events (murder of Padilla) took place. However, it continues to be investigated as one of the possible lines of investigation,” he informed the Ministry of State .
Credit, Twitter
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Luz Raquel Padilla was 35 years old and lived in the municipality of Zapopan
problems of living together
Padilla has had difficulties with several of his neighbors and frequently posted about them on Twitter.
In addition to denouncing the threatening graffiti and chlorine attack, the victim also complained about noise from neighbors, blocking access to the patio, holding parties and keeping a dog in common areas.
In her posts, she mentioned authorities like the Zapopan police.
On July 15, the day before her fatal attack, the victim expressed her frustration after one of her neighbors sent a patrol following her son’s crisis.
“How is it possible that my neighbor sends a patrol for a child with autism and epilepsy because he is having one or more seizures and is banging on the walls,” he lamented on Twitter.
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Padilla was the mother and caregiver of her 11yearold son, who was diagnosed with autism.
The case caused shock and outrage in Mexico.
As with other femicides in the country, many authorities are blaming what they see as inadequate work to protect women.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the case as “sad, her son sick and she burned”.
“Perhaps because of my social science training, I trace all of this back to the process of individualization that was promoted in the neoliberal era,” he said, referring to that case and also that of the young Debanhi Escobar, for whom he “asked to shape values and what exists.” strengthen in order to achieve “a better society”.
In Padilla’s case, the Yo Cuido México organization says the victim did not receive “due attention or followup” after reporting to the Zapopan police station.
The group also alleges that Padilla’s application to participate in the Pulse of Life program was denied “given that the threats she received from ‘third parties’ were not sufficient reason to be a beneficiary.”
The Pulse of Life is an instrument with a location system and a panic button that sends a distress signal so that, in the event of an emergency, the patrol closest to the applicant can provide assistance.
The Jalisco State Human Rights Commission announced the opening of a complaint against the Prosecutor’s Office and the Zapopan Police Station for “alleged lack of enhanced due diligence in attention and followup”.
In return, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro ensures that Luz had safeguards in place. “There were surveillance patrols and personal attention, but in the face of such an atrocity nothing was enough,” Alfaro said.
“It is the duty of public authorities to take effective measures to protect women who report and witness genderbased violence before, during and after judicial proceedings,” the United Nations organization UN Women tweeted in a message in which they condemned the murder of Padilla.
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