“She was completely dedicated to taking care of her son (…). It was her life to be by her son’s side.”
This is how Mily Cruz Díaz, coordinator in Jalisco of the Yo Cuido México collective, remembers Luz Raquel Padilla, brutally murdered by a group of people who doused her with alcohol and set a fire in a park in Zapopan, Mexico.
The young woman belonged to this association – which brings together other caregivers of dependent people – as the mother of a child with autism on whom she focused practically 24 hours a day.
His murder caused great shock and outrage in Mexico not only because of his brutality, but also because he had previously reported numerous death threats and attacks by residents of his building to the police and on his own social networks.
But informing the authorities did not prevent the attack suffered on Saturday July 16 and that on Tuesday 19, after three days of agony with almost 90% of his body burned, he ended up dying.
Focused on her son
Padilla was 35 years old and lived in Zapopan, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, with his mother and son Bruno, 11 years old and diagnosed with severe autism and refractory epilepsy that was difficult to control.
The woman was dedicated to taking care of her little one full time, so it was Bruno’s grandmother who went to work to support the family.
The economic situation of the family was sometimes precarious, mainly due to the medical expenses required by the child’s condition.
“She struggled a lot and suffered a lot because many times she didn’t have the means to buy her monthly medication,” Cruz said in an interview with W Radio.
According to Cruz, Bruno was expelled from an autism center in which they alleged “his aggressiveness” as a reason, for which the family had to pay for all the necessary therapies and medications on their own.
In fact, Padilla sometimes spent time with the little one painting piggy banks and handicrafts to sell in bazaars and through the internet in order to get extra money.
The little time that he did not spend with his son, Padilla dedicated himself to collaborating with the organization Yo Cuido México and receiving meditation classes on Saturdays.
It was that day, on that journey, when Padilla suffered the brutal attack.
continuous threats
The woman had reported to the police and on her social networks continuous threats and physical and verbal attacks by neighbors, which were even visible in huge graffiti inside her building that read, for example, “I’m going to burn alive”.
The reason, according to Cruz, is that the neighbors were “bothered” by the noises and blows that Bruno caused as a result of his autism and epileptic seizures.
Sometimes, the boy suffered severe crises that led him to attack himself, bang his hands against the wall, kick, make noises or scream and repeat things continuously.
Last week, Padilla tweeted that a neighbor had sent a police patrol to his house for one of Bruno’s crises in which he had started kicking and hitting the walls.
“How is that possible?” Padilla wondered.
But the threats escalated when, last May, the woman reported having been attacked with chlorine, which made it necessary to perform plastic surgery on her chest.
Although she reported what happened at the police station and requested to be included in the “Pulse of Life” program -to have a locator with a panic button to alert the police in emergencies-, Cruz says that the authorities argued that her situation was not required this type of support and was refused.
Yes, other protection measures were ordered, according to the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office. However, the Zapopan police acknowledged in a statement that these were only in force from May 9 to July 9.
A week later, Padilla was murdered.
“The only thing that was given was a restraining order of 3 meters for two months, which ended a few days after this situation, which is also illogical to put a restraining order when they lived door to door,” Cruz criticized in an interview. with journalist Julio Astillero.
Only two days before losing her life, Padilla claimed to have again received death threats from her neighbors, who told her that they would kill her if they found her in the street.
“Luz had already normalized the attacks against her person, so she did not give it importance (…). The violence towards her was already normal,” Cruz lamented.
This Thursday, the State Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the arrest and preventive detention order for the neighbor denounced in May by Padilla – who was charged with crimes against the dignity of persons, threats and injuries – and who a day earlier had come to testify voluntarily as a witness for the murder of the young woman.
However, the authorities clarified that his arrest is due to the previous complaint that existed against him and not to the investigation now opened for femicide.
The first investigations indicate that he was not present at the scene of Padilla’s murder, according to witnesses.
Bruno’s future
After Padilla’s death, the Zapopan authorities offered a lifetime scholarship to Bruno and his grandmother, who received the “Pulse of Life” emergency device that had been denied to her daughter when she asked for help.
The mayor also offered comprehensive medical care, rehabilitation and emotional support for the child, who until now had not had the support of the authorities.
The greatest concern now focuses on the minor, who will be in the care of his grandmother as the main guardian, who will have to take care of all his needs and attentions.
“I don’t know what will happen with all this because it is an emotional lack of control that can cause more intense crises. [al niño]”, recognized Cruz, who demanded results in the investigation of the authorities.
“It’s a hate crime that can’t stay like this,” he concluded.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-62261040, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-07-22 01:00:07
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