Silvia Guerrero had a piece of her heart torn out the day her 18-year-old son Juan was murdered by a 17-year-old youth. Since then, this mother has collected more than 75,000 signatures requesting the toughening of the juvenile law in response to a sentence that has proven to be predictable. The family has reported that the sentence handed down against their son’s killer was six years of detention in a juvenile center and two years of supervised release “and not a single day in prison.”
Read more Arrested ‘El Trompas’, the suspect in the femicide of the Spanish woman Claudia Tacoronte in Mexico
The initiator of the petition through the Change.org platform recalled that “now my son is buried in a cemetery, but his killer is already an adult” and insisted on the need to change the law: “For my son, we are already too late,” she lamented upon learning of the sentence this week. “But we cannot just stay like this.”
She believes that the perpetrator of the crime “was very aware that he was stealing his life… and therefore also ours” and said she feels full of pain over the news. “It outrages me. It stirs me up. And it hurts my heart. My son Juan was capable of turning a difficult day into a beautiful day. And he is no longer here. To the immense pain of losing him is added the pain of seeing that the culprit will barely pay for it.”
Juan’s family continues to demand social support through signatures
The life of this woman from Vilagrassa (Lleida), mother of four other children, has completely changed. Since then, she has turned her son’s murder into a cause to fight against what she considers an “injustice.” Silvia stated to La Vanguardia, almost two months after the crime, that the current law “does not reflect the severity of certain crimes committed by minors who act with terrifying maturity.” “Even if it is in separate modules from the rest of the prisoners, we believe it is necessary to reevaluate and amend this law to include harsher penalties for major crimes,” she asserted.
Read more Barça: the club records record revenues but remains in losses
The juvenile law establishes a code of educational measures, depending on the type of crime committed, which include closed, semi-open, or open regimes; community service or carrying out socio-educational tasks. In the most serious crimes, committed by minors between 16 and 18 years old, the closed regime can last a maximum of ten years and then another five years of supervised release. In this case, the perpetrator, now an adult, has been sentenced to six years in a center and another two years of supervised release.
Through her petition, the signatories urge the Spanish judicial system to review the law “and ensure that no other parent has to go through the unimaginable pain we are experiencing.” In fact, Juan’s family, along with others who had also lost their children in murders committed by minors, delivered their signatures last May at the Congress of Deputies. With them, they managed to meet with the PSOE and the PP: “The PSOE did not commit to anything. The PP committed to pushing for a law change in May, but months later we are still waiting for them to follow through and they have stopped responding to us.”
On the occasion of the final sentence of the case, Silvia continues to call for more signatures to gain greater social support and will get back in touch with parliamentary groups: “Juan was my son. My light and my everything. I am not going to give up. If you haven’t signed yet, I ask you from the heart.”
Read more Can the AI arms race be stopped?
