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Mexican public opinion has learned the details of Giovanni López's death a month after he was assassinated. In recent weeks, the victim's relatives have continued to denounce that the true purpose of the authorities was not to find the culprits, but to prevent the brutal details of his arrest and murder from coming to light.
Giovanni's case has been very reminiscent of George Floyd's in the US; Both arrests were videotaped and both deaths have sparked a wave of outrage at police abuses which, in the case of Mexico, resulted in a violent protest in Guadalajara yesterday and the obvious feeling that this is only the first of many .
"Help me," Giovanni López yelled desperately to his friends, while a dozen police beat him up on a patrol the night of May 4 in Ixtlahuacán, 40 km from the capital of Jalisco. "He was calm and you beat him, why are you treating him like this?" Insists one of his friends, to which a police officer responds: "He is resisting." At this point, the causes of the arrest are still unclear , family members claim that he was detained for not wearing a mask, the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office maintains that it was for aggressive behavior against the police authority and for consuming some type of illegal substance. The scene uploaded to social networks culminates with a premonitory phrase from the video's author: "If they kill him we already know . "
After spending the night in the dungeon, Giovanni López died the following morning at the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara, a victim of a traumatic brain injury. According to the autopsy, he also had a shot in the leg and evident signs of beatings and torture throughout his body. Despite the family's attempts to clarify the facts, the case remained hidden for weeks.
The environment near Giovanni even suffered death threats and an alleged bribery attempt by the municipal president, Eduardo Cervantes, who, through a third party, would have offered 200,000 pesos (about 9,000 euros) to prevent the video of the arrest It will reach social networks . Finally, the images came out and the Prosecutor's Office was forced to acknowledge the events this week.
Under the slogan 'Justice for Giovanni', the outrage around the case grew like a snowball to go from the complaints on social networks to the streets of Guadalajara. This Thursday hundreds of protesters protested in front of the state government headquarters, triggering strong clashes with the police. Several patrols were burned and even a protester set fire to the back of an agent who, fortunately, has already been discharged.
The moments of greatest tension were experienced at the gates of the municipal headquarters, where the police had to shoot tear gas to prevent protesters from entering the building . Finally 27 people were arrested and the state governor, Enrique Alfaro, issued a serious warning: "The police are there to take care of people, to guarantee public order and the rule of law. The consequences for those who do not understand it will be serious. "
Questioned by the development of the investigations, Alfaro was also forceful and reiterated that "there can be no cause that justifies this brutal murder, I want justice for all citizens and I will do everything in my power to make that happen." Finally, after four weeks without any progress, the investigation has yielded its first results first thing this Friday (curiously hours after the protests in Guadalajara). As confirmed by the Governor: "We have three detainees in relation to the death of Giovanni López, by arrest warrant, who will have to answer to a judge. I am not going to mention names, I will say generally, the municipal commissioner would be there, a policeman and a middle command. "
After spending several days cornered by the lack of answers to this murder, the news of the arrest could not have come at a better time for Alfaro. Now the question that many ask is: would they have acted with the same resolution and forcefulness if the news had not been released? In any case, justice for the relatives of Giovanni López is not yet guaranteed . For this, the guilty must be sentenced, and that is saying a lot in a country where 99.3% of cases are never resolved.
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