Families of Victims Demand Stricter Juvenile Law with 130,000 Signatures
Five families, including two from Seville, have submitted a petition to Congress calling for a review of the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Law.
By Redacción La Voz de Andalucía
••3 min read
IA
Generic image of documents and a pen, symbolizing a petition or legal reform.
Five families of young people murdered by minors, two of them from Seville, have presented over 130,000 signatures to the Congress of Deputies, advocating for a toughening of the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Law.
The initiative, launched through the Change.org platform, seeks to amend the current legislation, which they deem “insufficient” and “shameful” because sentences often involve closed internment regimes for periods that families consider too short.
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"We are gathered here with these 130,000 signatures to demand that we be heard, that we be taken into account, and above all, to achieve higher sentences and closed regimes. We cannot tolerate, considering that adult law starts at 10 years and juvenile law can end between 8 and 5 years maximum. And often they have semi-open regimes, which means they can leave the center. And that is intolerable because in the end, they have murdered a person."
Silvia Guerrero, mother of Juan, a young man murdered in Tárrega (Barcelona), expressed her outrage to the media outside the Lower House. She highlighted that in many cases, minors serve sentences under semi-open regimes, allowing them to leave the center, a situation she considers “intolerable.”
Among the families present were the relatives of Daniel, murdered on July 2 in Isla Mayor (Seville), and of Jesús, 18 years old, murdered in Palomares del Río (Seville) on Halloween night. Also participating were the families of Alejandro, murdered in Córdoba, and of Leticia Rosino, a victim in Castrogonzalo (Zamora).
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"The point is that for serious crimes, there should be sentences commensurate with such crimes because my son will never leave the cemetery again, and I cannot understand that this person has the right to leave and that it seems that murderers have more rights than victims, and that they really make us feel that they are babies who need to be educated now."
Guerrero described the imposition of eight-year internment sentences for a person's death as “ridiculous,” calling it “a bad joke.” She emphasized that the law from the year 2000 is “obsolete” and urgently needs revision, as society has evolved and the streets are “very dangerous.”
Following the submission of the signatures, Guerrero reported that they have been contacted by representatives from the PSOE and the PP, to whom she posed a direct question: “What would you do if it were your child?” Other Sevillian families, such as the parents of Aarón Muñoz, murdered in Gerena in January 2025, and of Juan José Pérez, a victim in Mairena del Alcor in 2016, also support the initiative.
