A "savage" transfemicide that occurred in Uruguay outrages LGBTIQ+ groups

The news of the “savage” murder of a trans woman has outraged the LGBTIQ+ community in Uruguay. Twenty-three community groups expressed their pain and demanded answers from the State. This is the second transfemicide that occurred in 2023 in Uruguay.

The victim was a 26-year-old woman murdered on December 1 in the town of El Pinar, in the department (province) of Canelones (south), the groups expressed their support for the family and “friends” of the victim and condemned the crime.

“We will not expose the comrade out of respect for her memory, family and friends, but we must, in her name and in that of the victims of violent violence, denounce and reject her perpetrators and the ways that cause these crimes to be repeated in our society. over and over again in conditions of impunity,” they noted.

Spread on the social networks of groups such as Ovejas Negras, Trans Boy Uruguay, Asociación Trans el Uruguay and Colectivo Trans del Uruguay (CTU), the statement states that “the forensic report confirmed that the attack was disproportionate and savage and committed by several people, with terrifying violence and cruelty”.

“The hypothesis is on the table that it could have been a settling of scores for his (drug) consumption situation (…) Although the murder had this cover, we should not divert attention: it was also a hate crime against a transvestite-trans body,” they denounced.

The second hate crime

The president of the CTU, Colette Spinetti, said this Sunday that this is the second transfemicide that has occurred in Uruguay this year and is framed in “a series of situations of violence” that has occurred “increasingly” against the LGBTIQ+ population.

“It is an exponential increase in violence; let's not forget that in February a trans colleague was murdered in Rivera, in August three trans colleagues were raped, in September a gay man was raped and so we continue with the violence all the time, we reach December and another murder,” he said.

According to Spinetti, furthermore, this occurs with an “absent” State, since, he points out, the response of the authorities has not been effective: “Uruguay has transfemicides from between 2011 and 2012 that are still unresolved.”

To which, he noted, the hypothesis of a serial killer was used and a man who said he had committed five of the murders of trans women was prosecuted, Spinetti pointed out that this case was later truncated due to “lack of evidence.”

Although he stressed that the groups “shelter” and “accompany”, he estimated that the number of murders and hate attacks is already “alarming”, which usually occur in “packs” and, he believes, reflect a “patriarchal and sexist” culture that It still weighs on the community protection laws in force in Uruguay – with a comprehensive trans law from 2018 -.

“We say enough is enough. Enough of killing us, of murdering us, enough of the discrimination, when are the State institutions going to take responsibility?” he emphasized.