This Mexican Woman Was Burned Alive Despite Reporting Harassment Repeatedly And People Want Justice
A Mexican woman who reported being harassed multiple times to authorities has died after she was set on fire, causing outrage again over violence against women in Mexico.
A Mexican woman who reported being harassed multiple times to authorities has died after she was set on fire, causing outrage again over violence against women in Mexico.
35-year-old Luz Raquel Padilla Gutiérrez was attacked at a park in the city of Zapopan on the evening of Saturday July 19.
Witnesses described three men and one woman pouring alcohol over her and setting her on fire.
She sustained burn injuries on 90% of her body and died three days later despite efforts from doctors to save her.
In May, Padilla Gutiérrez had reported being harassed to authorities and even brought evidence of threats that a neighbor had allegedly graffiti outside her house.
She tweeted multiple photos of graffiti threats she had received, with some of them reading, “I’m going to burn you alive” and “You are going to die Luz.”
Padilla Gutiérrez’s neighbor had allegedly written the threats over her 11-year-old son with autism being noisy.
The Yo Cuido México organization, a group helping to take care of people with disabilities that Padilla was a part of, said she had survived a previous attack with industrial chlorine.
She had then applied to be a part of a program that aims to provide protection to those under constant threat in Mexico.
“However, she was denied inclusion in the program, considering that the threats she received from third parties were not sufficient cause,” the organization said, according to local news El Pais.
Authorities had called on the neighbor but stated there was no clear evidence that he was one of the attackers.
Padilla Gutiérrez’s son has since been placed under the care of her mother and aunt.
10 women are killed every day in Mexico, and 25,000 women are missing nationally, official data shows.
