Around twenty men attacked trans activist Alessandra Luna and two companions in Glew, Buenos Aires Province. They beat them for twenty minutes and stole all their belongings. Today they expanded their complaint at Provincial Prosecutor's Office 20 in Lomas de Zamora. "We were terrified by the morbid curiosity of those who were watching and filming," Luna told Presentes.

[NEWS UPDATED AT 10 PM]

Alessandra Luna, coordinator of the Travesti-Trans Front of Conurbations for DiversityTwo of our comrades were attacked and beaten by a gang on the night of February 19th in the town of Glew (Almirante Brown district, Buenos Aires province). The activists and students from the University of Avellaneda (UNDAV), Alessandra, Hamir Santillán, and Lara, were returning from a day in San Vicente, driving along Route 210 when a red pickup truck intercepted them, forcing them to stop. The street was dark, and there were roadblocks nearby due to power outages in the area. They were driving at a snail's pace because of the roadblocks when several men got out of the truck and began beating them until they were pulled from the vehicle. “They were calling us faggots, fucking transvestites, everything, and a lot of people were passing by who, instead of helping us, were filming us with their cell phones. Two motorcycles stopped, and when people asked what was happening, they joined in beating us. Because the attackers were telling them they were police officers, and people believed them and took advantage of the situation to lynch us, as if we had done something wrong,” he told Present Alessandra Luna.

"We were terrified by the morbid curiosity of those who were watching and filming."

Alessandra, Hamir, and Lara were lying face down on the grass, trying to call for help. No one did anything. Finally, the attackers let them go to their car, smashed it, and stole all their belongings. "That's when I took the opportunity to shout what was happening, and one of them (those who joined in the beating later) let us go," Luna added. With wounds all over their bodies and heads, they got up and walked to a patrol car monitoring one of the picket lines to ask for help. They were refused and told to go to a police station. After begging for a phone among all the people watching the scene, someone lent it to them. They were able to call their friends, who contacted the Development Secretariat of the Municipality of Almirante Brown, and a team was dispatched to the site of the attack. "If the people watching had defended us from the beginning, this wouldn't have ended like this. Let's talk about the disparity faced by our community." People believed twenty drunks who were saying horrible things to us more than they believed us. We were the bad guys, and that's why they attacked us. This gives you an idea of ​​the fear and paranoia people have. Because these guys said they were police officers. We were more afraid of our vulnerability in the eyes of society than of those 18 guys. We were terrified by the morbid curiosity of those who watched and filmed us.Luna said.

READ ALSO: [#Argentina: drastic increase in transvesticides in 2016]

The complaints

When they finally arrived at the police station, the power was out, and they had to wait to file the report, which they had to restart about three times due to shift changes and system failures. "We were lucky that the Municipal Secretary's office was aware of everything, because we called them, and they contacted the police station, which initially left Hamir—who was the most severely beaten—lying on the sidewalk across the street," Luna told PresentToday, the victims expanded their complaint at Provincial Prosecutor's Office 20 in Lomas de Zamora because Hamir Santillán was unable to testify due to his condition. “Unfortunately, in these cases it is very difficult to identify the aggressors and for the justice system to act, so that the charges don't just remain 'assault and robbery.' These are things that happen all the time and go unseen because it's in the outlying suburbs. If it happened in the Caballito neighborhood, everyone would already know,” said Darío Arias of Conurbanos por la Diversidad (Suburbs for Diversity). Present“We have been seeing an increase in social violence against LGBTI people. In the new context of impunity provided by this government, they feel greater freedom to act. This is something we have been denouncing since December 2015,” Arias added. (Date Mauricio Macri took office, Ed.).

 Violated by health centers

The first ambulance they were able to access—once they were at the police station—simulated an emergency procedure, pretending to overwhelm Santillán, and then left, saying they couldn't take them to any health center. They had to go in their own vehicle—it was already nearly 3 a.m.—first to UPA 24, a first-aid clinic that lacked the resources to treat them. "We continued on to Meléndez Hospital, but there they told us they didn't have an X-ray machine or a CT scanner. Furthermore, they never respected our gender identities. They addressed Lara and me using male pronouns, even though we explained how they should refer to us. From there, they sent us to Calzada Hospital, and it was the same story again. They said they didn't have the machines, and again, the mistreatment. Only when we told a nurse that we were in contact with the Municipal Health Secretary did they 'remember' that the machine was working," Luna recounts.

[READ ALSO: “Transphobia is not a phobia: it is not an illness”]

Hamir Santillán was unable to walk and was never provided with a wheelchair. The Municipality told Conurbanos por la Diversidad (Urban Diversity for the Greater Buenos Aires Area) that they will conduct investigations into the ambulance service and the provincial health centers that denied him care. The attacks occurred around 9 p.m., and the victims were able to return home at 9 a.m. the following day. Repudiation from several organizations In addition to Conurbanos por la Diversidad and the Movimiento Antidiscriminatorio por la Liberación (MAL), other organizations spoke out in the same vein and strongly condemned the events, including the Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal Seguro y Gratuito Zona Sur (National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion - Southern Zone) and the Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda (UNDAV). Through its Transversal Program of Gender and Diversity Policies of the University Extension Secretariat, UNDAV condemned "the transphobic attack suffered by two trans students from UNDAV and another trans woman." The news initially broke through Alessandra's Facebook account, where she wrote: "Violence has once again targeted three transgender people, a gang attack." We saw death very close but never on the floor, we let go of each other's hands while listening to the transphobic insults«.

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