translated from Spanish: Cristina Vázquez’s femicide research failure

María Cristina Vázquez Chavarría, a neighbor and activist of the Colony Condesa was murdered inside her apartment last Friday, June 28. His body was discovered three days later because of the smell that came off. The perpetrator of the crime and the motives of femicide remain unclear, but to this are the failures of the authorities in the attention and investigation of the case.
Possible negligence in a request for help before the crime, contamination of the scene, and leaks of data from a dossier that should be classified are some of the irregularities that neighbors and people close to the case reported to Political Animal.
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In fact, Cristy, as her close friends told her, was killed two days after she had asked the area police chief for safety warning of an adjoining and taller building, still under construction, where alleged criminals who jumped had settled down the roof. The activist’s department was just the one on the top floor.
Vázquez Chavarría was a member of the so-called Founding Committee of the Association of Residents of colonia Hipódromo Condesa. Through it he had denounced multiple irregularities in urban matters, from illegal logging in the colony to irregular constructions, such as the building built next to his own.
The flaws that already accumulate in this case and other key points of homicide and investigation are presented below. Authorities of the Capital Prosecutor’s Office noted that the case is still under investigation, that videos of the case are being reviewed and that some conclusion is not yet possible.
The ignored warning
The Founding Committee of the Association of Residents revealed that on Wednesday, June 26, two days before the crime, a group of neighbours led by Cristy met with the head of the Rome Sector of the Ministry of Citizen Security to request greater security in the area because a 10-level building under construction, located on the corner of Baja California and Cholula, had been occupied by suspected criminals.
The activist told him that the construction of the building was stopped by various irregularities which had been exploited by outsiders to get in.  This allowed people to jump from this construction easily to the roof of the Cholula 140 building, where she and five other families lived.
The activist detailed that her apartment was on the top floor making it the most vulnerable to any income from the roof. The police chief’s response, as referred to by the Committee, is that the request would be met.
Less than 48 hours after that meeting, the activist was killed. And the security he asked did not come either before the crime or now, as pointed out by the neighbors to Political Animal. On a tour carried out by this means in the vicinity of the building, the presence of any police were not appreciated either.
A so-called 911
Around midnight on Thursday, June 25, neighbors of the Cholula 140 building heard what they thought was a scream coming from the third floor, where Cristy’s apartment is located. After 1:30 in the morning, they heard another scream and a blow-like sound again.
A couple who inhabited one of the apartments, whose names are reserved for protection, told Political Animal who called 911 to warn them that something happened upstairs and asked for a patrol. But the minutes passed and it didn’t come.
Neighbors said they decided to look for another patrol and found one of traffic items. “But they told us that it was not within their competence to monitor this matter, and to wait for another unit,” said one of them. From that night they never saw Cristina Vázquez again until her body was found three days later.
The couple testified to ministerial officials that they had made that call and then searched for a patrol unsuccessfully.
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However, the Ministry of Citizen Security assured Political Animal that it is false that there was a 911 call is last night as they have a pagesystem of all calls that are made to this number, and none appears asking for support in that area.
This situation is under investigation by the authorities.
Work adjacent to the activist’s building
Contaminated scene
The president of the Foundation Committee of the Resident Association, Rafael Guarneros, reported that the crime scene of Cristina Vázquez, i.e. the interior of the department, was not adequately preserved by the authorities.
He said that when the smell coming out of the department showed that there was a body, there were preventative police men who tried to enter the home without waiting for the experts or performing the cordoning, something that Guarneros prevented them at first. However, minutes later came more uniformed and even firefighters who did enter the place prior to their insurance.
A confirmation of the above is photographs that only one day after the body was found leaked on social media and which, according to the authorities, were not those taken by experts. These images show that the area is not preserved or marked, even though there is at least one person inside, and even inside the room where the victim was.
Lawyers specializing in human rights issues have pointed out that part of proper preservation of the crime scene is the care to be taken with the images that are captured from it. The dissemination of these photographs violently the chain of custody and therefore the evidence gathered, which in turn can damage the investigation.
“There was never really any security cordon that we could see of any kind. A lot of people were walking around,” said one of the neighbors.
Leaked dossier data
Another flaw that has already been filed in this case was the leak of data and statements from the research folder initiated by the Attorney General’s Office on the occasion of femicide. Proof of this was the publication in a newspaper of the names of the neighbors who made the alleged 911 distress call, as well as the precise time it occurred.
“We hadn’t talked to anyone but the police. We didn’t say anything to any reporters. This had to leave the Office of the Attorney General who didn’t think about our security either,” neighbors said. 
Other data that were also leaked from the case file were some results and conclusions of the expert opinions practiced at the site, such as the blows the victim received to the face, as well as the details of how and where she was assaulted, among others.
The possible mobiles of crime
According to the authorities in charge of the investigation, so far the possible motive behind the femicide of the activist Cristina Vázquez has not been confirmed. The only one that has been ruled out is an attempted theft, since there is no warning that visible belongings were missing in the property.
Among the lines of inquiry being worked on is that related to Vazquez’s own activism who, as part of the committee, had reported, among other things, irregularities in the construction of an adjoining building (which led to suspensions of the invasion by people outside the site.
In the Office of the Attorney General’s Office, they also do not rule out the crime being related to a family issue, since one of the hypotheses is that the possible phenoid was known to the victim, since it apparently entered without forcing any lock.
The possible routes of the phenocide
According to the authorities, one likely route that the aggressor or assailants would have followed is through the building under construction adjacent to the victim’s, from which they possibly climbed using their highest height to move to the roof. The same route denounced by the activists.
The other option is that they make a similar route but from another property located on the right side of the building of Calle Cholula 140 and from which you can also access the roof with relative ease.
Once on the roof of the property, it was enough to pass the service rooms to get to the third floor that is where the activist’s department was. According to the witnesses, there was no special lock or door that prevented access to the interior while already on the roof.
And a third option is that someone allowed them to enter through the front door of the building or even that it was a person who was already inside the property.
To clarify this point the Office of the Attorney General is conducting a review of the videos in the area.
Maria Cristina Vázquez Building
Rainy tribute
Shortly after 7 p.m. and despite the rain, a group of about 30 neighbors gathered on Thursday 4 July in the so-called Mexico-Japan Friendship Park, located right in front of the building where the activist lived to pay a small tribute to her Farewell.
Despite heavy rain that fell a few minutes earlier, attendees arrived in the park with candles and flowers and set up a tent to shelter from the water. A photograph of Cristina Vázquez was also placed on a tripe, and slats with farewell messages were tied to one of the trees.
“Cristy had no funeral because his body cannot be cremated. They gave it to her mom who’s a lady in her 80s but she doesn’t live Here. We weren’t warned if we wanted to do something, but well, that’s why we decided to give you this little farewell,” Mr. Guarneros said.
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Neighbors in attendance reiterated to the media that their request is for justice to be done and those responsible to be detained.
Neighbors of the activist gathered to pay tribute
One more femicide
The murder of activist María Cristina Vázquez Chavarría is investigated by the city’s Office as a case of possible femicide, after early indications indicate that she may have died from beatings and suffocation.
From January to May 2019, according to official data, 389 victims of femicide have been registered in the country, more than 354 registered in the same period last year. However, in those first five months cases in Mexico City fell from 20 to 13 victims.
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Original source in Spanish