Neighbors attack left a man quadriplegic

Sanjuana Martinez

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 15, 2024, p. 13

On January 20, 2017, Roberto Hugo González Cabrera complained to his neighbor, María Fernanda Salcedo Medrano, that his dog had entered his house to urinate. She called her husband, Rodrigo Galán Gutiérrez, who electrocuted him with a teaser (taser), causing him to faint, and then they both gave him a brutal beating that left him unconscious in front of his 11-year-old son.

Roberto was 41 years old and woke up in the hospital with the doctor’s opinion: Due to the intensity of the blows, you have become quadriplegic.The news hit him like a bucket of cold water. Roberto knew that from that day on his life would change radically. He suffered fractures in his cervical vertebrae, irreversible neuronal damage in the second and third cervical vertebrae and a serious injury to his spinal cord, causing his body to be paralyzed below the neck, including his arms and legs.

In addition to the physical pain and the health consequences of two heart attacks, a pacemaker and a paralyzed lung, which makes it difficult for him to breathe, Roberto has had to live through a judicial ordeal trying to obtain justice, despite the fact that everything was recorded on the cameras of the La Joya subdivision.

He says that the attackers have influence in the courts of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, where the events occurred, and Judge Manuel David Montoya Absalón granted them the benefit of having the process in freedom and a fine of 20 thousand pesos.

Both those responsible have obtained 18 injunctions, so they never set foot in jail and have delayed the trial for all these years: The guilty settle everything with money in court. My life was changed in a second with that beating. I suffer impunity and corruption of the judicial authorities. I don’t want revenge, I want justice.says Roberto in an interview with The Day.

The Calvary

Roberto was dedicated to the administration of condominiums in Playa del Carmen, but due to his illness he has not been able to continue his working life and has lost his material assets: I had to sell my house, cars, everything to be able to pay for my treatments..

His personal life also changed, his marriage broke up, one of his sons, Miguel Ángel, died of leukemia and he has not been able to see the other, who lives with his mother, for the last four years.

For his treatment he needs the support of two nurses 24 hours a day. He receives therapies daily, from 9 in the morning to 6 in the afternoon. His three brothers support him with payments to take care of his food, his physiological needs through a tube, and about twenty medications that he must take daily.

On the legal side, Roberto filed a civil suit for material damages, for which he obtained a judgment of liability in 2021 and which obliges the aggressor to pay for the multiple surgical interventions and treatments that the victim has faced since the attack.

Despite the sentence, Rodrigo Galán, owner of the company Comercial PDC, resorted to appeals and injunctions to avoid paying. The justice system allowed the aggressor to continue without complying with the stipulations, not even with the so-called seizure of assets.

With the criminal complaint he filed, he managed to get a judge to link him to trial three years later for qualified injuries which are committed with premeditation, treachery and advantage or treason, according to the Penal Code of Quintana Roo, but the judge gave him the benefit of facing the process in freedom and only took away his passport.

Article 100, Section III, of Quintana Roo, establishes that if the injuries produce the permanent loss of any organic function, member, organ or faculty, or cause a certain or probably incurable disease or incorrectable deformity or permanent incapacity to work for more than one yearthe penalty will be two to nine years in prison; but if these injuries are serious, the penalty will increase by one half morethat is, Galán could face a 13-year sentence, according to the law.

However, with the injunctions, the aggressor has delayed the trial for seven years, until last week when he was found guilty, but still without a final sentence or imprisonment, due to these legal resources.

There are no legal consequences for my attackers, they continue as if nothing happened.he says, unable to avoid getting emotional after all the tortuous journey he has experienced.

Roberto was an athlete, he practiced triathlon. In his youth he was a dancer for the singer Thalía, whom he has tried to contact without any response: They destroyed my life.

The tests

The assault that Roberto suffered was recorded by the cameras in the subdivision. However, he believes that justice is slow, corrupt and tortuous and unfortunately his mother – in addition to his son – was an important witness to the assault, but she unfortunately died.

My son, who was 10 years old at the time, also saw everything. He begged them to let me go. They both hit me with their fists and kicked me. I was immobilized by the electric shock and couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move. Then I realized that I couldn’t move anymore. I thought: why can’t I move?

She remembers that her neighbor María Fernanda let her dogs out on the street and they walked around without a leash: I had the door open because I was going to go with my son to a hot air balloon exhibition in Yucatan. I was loading the suitcases into the van and one of the dogs went into the living room and even peed in the kitchen. Then the dog got out and I found its owner, I complained to her. And she didn’t like it and started yelling at me. It was an exchange of words and she left very angry..

She adds: “She went for her husband. He arrived furiously, full of anger, to my house. The man is 1.80 and he arrived at the main door, entered my property and with a teaser He electrocuted me in the abdomen. I fell to the ground. They both hit me hard and hit me in the back of the head. That’s where they caused brain damage.”

The first six months were a torment. A sore became infected, causing a wound on his tailbone. He almost died. And to close that wound, he eventually needed 60 staples.

His medical difficulties were numerous. For the first three years he was unable to speak, so he had a tracheotomy, an opening in the trachea with a tube so he could breathe.

For seven years, the hearings were permanently postponed by the judiciary. The oral trial began last February, but it was not until last week that the judge decided to prosecute the aggressor and declare him guilty, although he remains free.

I finally see a light. But I feel in danger. Playa del Carmen is small and I can find them anywhere. These people are psychopaths and don’t let them show up there and have another fit of rage and affect my family or other people.says.

Rodrigo Galán Gutiérrez remains protected and as long as there is no conviction there will be no arrest warrant and he will remain free: He was found guilty, but remains free. A sentence is supposed to be issued soon, but this person, because he has money, has done what he wanted..

The recording is compelling evidence.

And I myself am also evidence. Everything was recorded. The video is the main evidence, but the attacker made the video disappear with his tricks. How is it possible that a video that is in the custody of the court is lost?then it appeared, but it was already contaminated, although it was an important test.”

Despite all the tricks and dirty strategies used by the aggressors and accomplices in the Judiciary, the subject was found guilty: The file of the damage and the repair to which I am entitled, compensation, is still missing..

Duck: The damage I have from the neck down, the damage to my body is irreversible, it can no longer be fixed. All the money in the world is not going to make it go back to how it was before. We will wait to see what the sentence is and the quantification of the payment for the damage..

Surgery performed in Thailand could restore mobility in his arms and legs. It will cost 2 million pesos, but he still does not know if he is a candidate for the procedure.

Roberto regrets that the justice system in Mexico does not work: It has been very difficult. I have experienced a lot of injustice, I have known what impunity is. And thanks to the fact that the aggressor gives them money, they have delayed everything, there is no other explanation..

She demands that María Fernanda Salcedo Medrano also be imprisoned. Her trial is only in the intermediate stage and she is awaiting the hearing date: I hope they both end up in prison. I will continue to fight for that..

Roberto receives donations and support through his social media to continue his medical treatment. On Instagram: roberto_renace. On TikTok: justiciapararobert.