Breathe
By Sonia Serrano
July 16 marked one year since the death of Luz Raquel. She was burned alive in a park in Zapopan, Jalisco. In the previous months, she had filed complaints about the harassment of one of her neighbors, who was annoyed by the excessive noise made by Luz Raquel's son, who has a variant of autism.
After her death, the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office showed videos and released data to insinuate that Luz Raquel set herself on fire, that she had mental problems and did not open other lines of investigation.
What followed for her family in the months since has been a journey demanding justice and that Luz Raquel's son, Bruno, have access to the health services he needs. The answers have not come.
Last July 11, the Supreme Court of Justice of the state decided not to renew Blanca Paredes' employment contract. The argument was that the magistrates of the chamber where she worked did not want her with them, because she did not have the necessary profile. This, despite the fact that she has two master's degrees.
Blanca was the partner of the former court magistrate, José de Jesús Covarrubias Dueñas, who was caught on camera in their home while sexually abusing Blanca's underage niece. The parents of the young woman denounced the facts and began proceedings against the former judicial official, who had to leave his position, lost his rights as an academic at the University of Guadalajara and is currently a fugitive because there is an arrest warrant against him.
But all this also marked the beginning of the nightmare for Blanca, who first faced a hastily advanced lawsuit in which Covarrubias fought her for custody of their two children. Then came the economic restrictions for her children and, finally, the loss of her job.
Blanca has protested on two occasions with a hunger strike at Casa Jalisco, where Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramirez lives. In the first, after a few days, the governor finally came out to attend to her and promised his support, which did not happen. In the second, she was violently evicted by the police.
On July 6 and 7, Laura Lucía was visited in prison by personnel from the National Human Rights Commission who, after learning about her file and realizing the irregularities and violations of her human rights, decided to take on the case.
Laura filed a criminal complaint on January 24, 2022 with the Crimes against Women and Gender-Based Crimes Unit of the State Prosecutor's Office against Ignacio G., general manager of the company Operadora de Servicios Mega, for sexual abuse and harassment. This case did not move forward and finally the State Prosecutor's Office decided not to act, considering that more than six months had passed since she was the victim of the crime.
Operadora de Servicios Mega is the company contracted by the government of Enrique Alfaro Ramírez to lease heavy machinery for the A toda Máquina program, for which 3,634 million pesos will be paid. In 2019, the owner of the company, Guillermo Romo was captured in a broadcast of a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, accompanied in the front rows by the governor and federal deputy Mirza Flores, just a few days after winning the bid.
At the same time that Laura's complaint did not move forward, on September 28, 2022 she was arrested for the alleged crime of fraudulent administration, denounced by Ignacio G., whom she denounced for harassment. The judge ordered her to be remanded in custody.
The hearings of the main trial and the amparo that she filed have been suspended on several occasions under different pretexts, such as the fact that the company itself does not have the evidence to prove the economic loss or that they reject that Laura's signature is the one that appears in the proceedings and that the Instituto Jalisciense de Ciencias Forenses has not appointed an expert to review it.
Thus, this month she will serve 300 days in jail, far from her children and husband.
These three examples prove that justice with a gender perspective does not exist in Jalisco, especially if the other side is in power.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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