Thursday, September 18, 2025

Possible hate crime seen in murder of LGBTQ rights activist

The killing of a University of Guadalajara student who was found shot to death in Zapopan — the 16th student to suffer a violent death since 2014 — is now being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Police found the body of Jonathan Alberto Santos, 24, around 7 a.m. Tuesday on a street in the Balcones de la Cantera neighborhood. Jalisco prosecutors are gathering evidence to determine whether the murder was a hate crime against Santos, who was a member and activist of the LGBTQ community. 

Attorney General Gerardo Octavio Solis said the authorities will also continue to pursue the possibility that it was a crime of passion or related to robbery.

The death has sparked calls among students at the university for solutions to violence in Guadalajara and for justice in Santos’s killing. 

A woman identifying herself as Santos’s cousin said her family was unaware of any previous incidents in which Santos was targeted for violence.

“Everywhere he went, he was accepted as he was,” she said.

A local campus student organization, the University Students Federation (FEU), has encouraged demonstrators to congregate Friday evening at the governor’s residence, Casa Jalisco.

“We will keep fighting to demand justice for each student, for each one of our rights, and for every freedom. We will not rest until there is justice,” the organization posted on Twitter.

On his personal Twitter account on the day of Santos’s death, FEU president Javier Armenta linked the killing to many other murders of students and young people.

“Yet again, one of our fellow students has been a victim of violence and insecurity … What more is needed to stop these losses?”

In addition to the 16 students murdered in the last six years, another eight have disappeared.

Source: El Universal (sp), Informador (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Brown men walk through the US-Mexico border in Nogales

Survey: Over 40% of recent Mexican deportees lived in the US for more than a decade

2
Whiie the survey was small and focused on Arizona deportees, its findings hint at how recent deportations are affecting long-term US residents and their communities.
flooded neighborhood

Oaxaca town asks to relocate as rising sea levels flood homes and schools

0
“What we need is no longer visits or photo ops, but a real solution,” one resident said.
Diputada Brown

Mexico freezes funds of Morena lawmaker and others targeted by US sanctions

2
In what might be viewed as a case of binational cooperation, the U.S. designated 20 entities as drug traffickers then Mexico promptly froze their assets.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity