Guadalajara (Mexico), April (EFE).- The President of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) and the Guadalajara International Film Festival, Raúl Padilla López, took his own life this Sunday morning, confirmed the Attorney General of Jalisco (western Mexico).
In a statement, the state agency reported that it was investigating the circumstances in which the also ex-rector of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), who was located at his home in the Vallarta Poniente neighborhood (neighborhood), in Guadalajara, took his own life.
“Security units arrived at the site, as well as municipal paramedics who confirmed the fact. Preliminarily, a firearm was located at the scene, as well as a posthumous message,” the agency said.
The UdeG regretted the death of who it described as “one of the most important cultural promoters in recent history in Mexico”, who founded the FIL, considered the most important in Spanish-speaking and which received the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities together with the Hay Festival.
Padilla López, 69, was rector of the UdeG from 1989 to 1995, when he promoted a reform to create the Jalisco University Network. He was also a promoter of the University Cultural Center and various initiatives to promote the arts.
In the last three years, the cultural promoter also had various media confrontations with the governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro, and with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who described him as part of “the caciques” who control public universities in the country. .
The rector of the UdeG, Ricardo Villanueva, communicated the sadness of the university community due to the death of its former rector.
«There are lives that leave great legacies for many generations. That of Mr. Raúl Padilla López is one of them. Rest in peace », he said on his social networks.
Various characters from the political and cultural life of Mexico also added their condolences for his death. EFE
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