During the early hours of March 14, a subject intentionally set fire to a person on the street while he was sleeping in the city of Aguascalientes; a fact that was recorded thanks to a surveillance camera.
According to data from the audiovisual material, the attack occurred at 03:12 hours outside a flower shop located on Valentín Gómez Farías street, in the Guadalupe neighborhood. The images show how a man, between 20 and 25 years of age, with long hair, dark shirt and jeans approached the place to spray gasoline on the homeless man's blankets and belongings.
Afterwards, he took out a lighter to set it on fire and retire quietly, not before stealing a briefcase from him.
“It is seen that a young man of about 20 to 22 years old is approaching. He approaches, prowls around here, turns him around, realizing that there was a person asleep because there was a lot of garbage. He approaches, sculpts some bags for him and he still carries a briefcase that he had there, he takes that but he sets it on fire,” Luis González, a resident of the place, explained during an interview with a local media outlet.
The homeless man continued to sleep for a period of approximately three minutes, while the flames continued to spread, until a taxi driver arrived to alert him. The victim took off his blankets and took shelter to avoid serious injuries, so he only had minor burns.
Municipal police and the taxi driver were responsible for putting out the fire. So far, the perpetrator has not been arrested and his motives are therefore unknown.
According to neighbors, the man in a street situation is called “Manuel”, he is an older adult between 65 and 70 years of age, who has been living in the area for about two years; in addition, it was indicated that he is not someone who is problematic and is loved by everyone who has their businesses or their homes in the place.
The municipal police took the data of the assault and are looking for the probable perpetrator. In addition, the Attorney General's Office of the State of Aguascalientes reported that it already has an investigation kit to try to find the person who perpetrated the attack.
It is worth mentioning that in the last few hours the video went viral on social networks.
It is estimated that there are 21.9 million indigent people around the world, according to figures collected by Carlos M. Urzúa in one of his columns. “It is a global phenomenon where discrimination acts in full force. They suffer from the weather, the streets, institutional violence in arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of police and citizens, and they also have no access to any type of public policy,” said Morenovista legislator Lorena Villavicencio in 2019.
According to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), people in poverty lack not only the financial means, but also the information and documents necessary to access government aid.
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