As the United States and many countries around the world are condemning police brutality and protesting the death of George Floyd, police in Guadalajara, Jalisco is being investigated for the death of Giovanni Lopez, a man who was arrested on May 4th and was returned dead to his family the following day.

The circumstances around Giovanni’s death are extremely suspicious, yet his death didn’t receive much attention from social media up until a few days ago. In the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the U.S., Mexico is also fighting against police brutality.

Giovanni’s family filmed a video where a group of agents forced the young man into the police car, while the family is yelling at Giovanni to not worry and to hold on, that they were going to save him.

“No lo pueden subir [a la patrulla] porque no está haciendo nada. ¿Porque no trae el cubrebocas? Si no estaba haciendo nada.”

—Unidentified woman in the video

Translation: “You can’t put him in the patrol car because he isn’t doing anything. Because he doesn’t have a face mask on? He wasn’t doing anything.”

Another man added, “Si lo matan, ya sabemos,” which translates to: “If you kill him, we know what happened.”

The following day the family went to pick up Giovanni to the police station, where they were informed that he was in Guadalajara’s Civil Hospital. Moments later they were told that Giovanni was dead.

The family indicated that he had died from a severe blow to the head, and when they went to Forensics they saw that Giovanni also had a bullet wound in his leg.

When they saw that the inquiries were not progressing, the family made the video of Giovanni’s arrest public. They also made it public that the mayor had treated them and tried to bribe the family with 200,000 pesos to not spread the video.

Even though he was arrested on May 4th, Giovanni’s case received national attention up until June 3rd, which was also the date where Jalisco’s authority commented for the first time on the topic. State prosecution has said that they are investigating many Ixtlahuacán agents for the death.

Octavio Solís Gómez, Jalisco’s state attorney, has said that Giovanni was not arrested for not wearing a face mask, contrary to popular belief. However, he did not state the real motive.

The elements being investigated are still active. Solís Gómez has also said that there have been several inconsistencies within the officers’ declarations, according to expert opinions.

The public ministry will determine how the case proceeds.

Renowned Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has expressed his opinions regarding the case through Twitter, saying, “A más de un mes, no hay respuestas, no hay arrestos. No es abuso de autoridad. Es asesinato. El sinsentido—la locura absoluta—es que ocurra un asesinato a nombre de un asunto de salud pública”, which translates to: “Over a month later, there are no answers, there are no arrests. It is not abuse of authority. It is murder. The nonsense—the absolute madness—is that a murder happened on behalf of a public health issue.

Salma Hayek, the famed Mexican actress, has also used her platform to demand justice from the Mexican government for Giovanni .

Jalisco’s governor Enrique Alfaro has also said that in Jalisco they will not allow abuse of authority and much less any violations of human rights. He said that police are in place to protect the people, to guarantee public order, and the serve the validity of the rule of law.

Since the case has gained international attention, there have been several protests in Jalisco, Mexico City, San Luis Potosí . There have been many illegal arrests of protestors around the country, yet the protests will likely continue.

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