official omissions preceded his murder

Luz Raquel Padilla Gutiérrez died on July 19 from her injuries three days earlier, when five people threw gasoline at her and set her on fire. This assault occurred days after she was threatened by some of her neighbors, who were bothered by the noises made by her son, Bruno, an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with severe autism. 
The 35-year-old mother was buried on Thursday, July 21, while protests were held in Mexico City and Jalisco to demand justice for her murder.
While these demands continue and the investigations continue their march, we present the keys to the case, as well as the omissions and failures on the part of the authorities.

Threats
Luz denounced threats from her neighbors, who constantly assaulted and kneaded her, claiming that they could not stand Bruno’s crises. 
The violence escalated on May 16, when his neighbor’s mother threw chlorine at him, causing injuries to his chest and chest. Luz went to receive medical attention, where she was told that they had to treat her burns and do surgery on her chest due to the damage. 
After receiving his medical report, he went to the Zapopan Police Station to report what happened and ask for help. According to people close to the young woman, Luz requested to join the life pulse mechanism, with which a geolocator device is delivered that allows a call for help to the municipal police. However, the authorities denied it. 

The Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM) documented that it was not delivered to her under the justification that “the threats she received from ‘third parties’ were not sufficient cause to be a beneficiary.” 
The municipal president of Zapopan, Juan José Frangie, in an interview with W Radio said that the young woman did not request the device and as a measure to prevent aggressions she was given a restraining order. 
However, as documented Political Animal, Jalisco authorities are obliged to attend to any complaint – formal and informal – of a victim and grant various protection measures, not just an order. 
On several occasions, Sandra Quiñones, of CLADEM, has denounced that the Jalisco authorities are limited to delivering restraining orders, despite the fact that it has been proven that the aggressors usually do not respect them and that each victim needs several and different protection mechanisms. 
For example, Luz could have received free medical care, been transferred with her son to a safe accommodation, receive personal or home custody, economic resources or electronic equipment, such as the pulse of life, a flagship project of the Jalisco authorities to prevent femicides.
In addition, aggressions such as those suffered by Luz, by her neighbors, must be addressed by mechanisms of daily justice. However, as this medium has documented, the institutional apparatuses designed to address family, work or neighborhood conflicts subsist among unmanageable workloads, lack of professionalization of their employees, absence of data and accumulation of errors prevent them from fulfilling their main objective: to solve everyday problems. 
In Mexico, at least half of the population has been in these situations, but only 10% have been able to resolve them.
Discrimination against Bruno
Jalisco is one of 22 states that have a law to protect people with autism, which are derived from the General Law for the Care and Protection of People with Autism Spectrum Conditions.
The local law has been in place since 2018. It establishes that the well-being, care and non-discrimination of people diagnosed with the autism spectrum must be ensured. 
Tonatiuh Lay, an academic at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), explained that in this case it could be evidenced that Bruno’s integrity was not protected by the authorities, despite being a legal obligation.
Bruno was run from the center where he was being cared for because he was considered very aggressive. This meant that Luz had to stay at home in her care 24 hours a day. In this regard, Lay explains that autistic people have the right to support, especially in terms of education and health. Instead, the authorities did not funnel Bruno to another center. 
The academic also pointed out that the comments and threats of neighbors about Bruno’s condition evidence discrimination against people with psychosocial disabilities. 
“As a person with autism, what the state should have done was to sensitize (the neighborhood community), the municipality in this case, because to say: ‘yes, here lives a person with autism, these are its characteristics, these are the situations that can bother and put in a state of crisis,'” Lay said.
The murder and the initiation of investigations
On Saturday, July 16, Luz attended her meditation class, but on her way back home she was attacked in the neighborhood park. According to testimonies collected by the municipal police, she was assaulted by five people — four men and one woman — who then fled. 
Luz’s mother went to the site and her daughter told her that her neighbor was the mastermind. Afterward, she fainted and was taken to medical services. 
The collective Yo Cuido Mexico denounces that one of the security elements heard the statement of the young woman to her mother, but when the police gave the first report of the facts, they reported that she had been assaulted by an ex-sentimental partner. 
The young woman died on Tuesday, July 19. After the fact, elements of the Prosecutor’s Office of Jalisco went to the site of the aggression to collect evidence. From there, the institution initiated an investigation folder for the crime of femicide.
So far there is one detainee related to the case. This is Sergio Ismael “N”, whose arrest was announced this Thursday, July 21, but the reasons for his apprehension are independent of that of the folder for femicide.
“His arrest is for a complaint that Luz had made in a previous incident, this does not exempt that after a comprehensive and exhaustive investigation, in case Sergio’s participation in Luz’s femicide is proven, he can be charged with this other crime of femicide,” said Natalia Rojas, of CLADEM.

Feminicide or disability hate crime?
For Natalia Rojas, of CLADEM, the case should be investigated as a femicide, but it also “has different edges” that force the inquiries to be made with focus, intersections, gender perspective and human rights. 
In contrast, the collective Yo Cuido México, in its Jalisco chapter, called for the investigation under the crime of hate crime, since the aggressors acted against Luz because they discriminated against and hated the autistic condition of her son.
Bruno’s future
According to people close to the family, Bruno will remain under the care of his maternal grandmother, since his father has been absent from his care for many years. To get Bruno ahead, the grandmother only has the support of her other daughter.
After Luz’s murder, the municipal government of Zapopan promised to give Bruno a lifetime scholarship and other support to his grandmother, as her caregiver. In addition, he promised to incorporate him into the Autistic Center so that he receives comprehensive care, such as education, therapies and psychological accompaniment. 
The government of Jalisco issued a statement in which it assured that the Secretariat of the Social Care System (SSAS) works in coordination with Zapopan to help the family, although the scholarship to be delivered or the start date has not been specified. 
The authorities have also not talked about contemplating the relocation of the family, since they were threatened and intimidated by their neighbors and they are indicated as the alleged aggressors.
So far, the family has remained reserved and through the collective Yo Cuido Mexico, of which Luz was a member, has declared that it only demands justice for the young woman. 
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Original source in Spanish

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