Tomorrow, a demonstration will be held in front of the La Plata Prosecutor's Office to demand a thorough investigation into the death of Pamela Macedo Panduro, an activist with Otrans who died on January 1st while detained at Penal Unit No. 32 in Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires Province. Trans and travesti organizations from Buenos Aires Province are calling for a demonstration on Wednesday, March 1st, at 10:00 AM in front of the Prosecutor's Office at the corner of 7th and 56th Streets in La Plata, to demand justice. The demonstration, organized by the Federal Trans and Travesti Network in Argentina, the LGBTI Organizations Front, and Otrans Argentina, aims to demand a full investigation into the death of Pamela Macedo Panduro, an activist with Otrans who died on January 1st while detained at Penal Unit No. 32 in Florencio Varela, which is under the jurisdiction of the Buenos Aires Provincial Penitentiary Service. To this demand, the call adds other requests: to end the mass raids in public (as happened last week in La Plata) and to end the media violence against the transvestite and trans population.

Prisoner without conviction

Little is known about the death of Pamela Macedo Panduro, who was crowned Miss Latin America Trans in 2014. At the time of her death, which occurred at the Mi Pueblo Hospital in Florencio Varela, she had been in custody for almost two months. She had been arrested following an anonymous tip about drug possession. She spent more than a month in a police station in Ensenada before being transferred to prison unit No. 32. She had not been convicted, according to sources from Otrans, the organization she was active in. The investigation into her death is being handled by Prosecutor's Office No. 9 in Florencio Varela. "Pamela Macedo Panduro, a trans woman and migrant, died as a result of the cruelty of the justice system and institutional violence, something we had been denouncing since 2016: the persecution and abuse of trans women in prostitution, and how this is exacerbated in situations of incarceration." “We march to say enough to any degrading act against our sisters,” says Claudia Vásquez Haro, president of Otrans Argentina. In 2016, Vásquez Haro traveled to the UN headquarters in Geneva on a mission. On behalf of 22 organizations, she presented a report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on the human rights situation of transvestites and transgender people in Argentina.

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Raids in La Plata

Last week, 47 trans and travesti people were raided in La Plata. Two were arrested. Otrans denounced that the 9th Police Station in La Plata and the Women's Police Station were not only responsible for degrading treatment during their procedures, but also conducted street searches, disregarding court rulings that expressly prohibited them. "We are concerned about what has been happening and we call on society to stand with us and not be indifferent to this violation of rights. We also denounce the media violence perpetrated against our community and the exacerbation of discrimination. We have filed a complaint, naming names, against a journalist who speaks of gangs and networks on the AN news agency. This is not only a lie, but it also violates our rights and creates a narrative that stigmatizes us," said Vasquez Haro. Tomorrow, the organization will file a series of petitions with the provincial court: habeas corpus for two of its members who are currently incarcerated, a complaint regarding the mass raids, and another concerning the problems faced by the trans and travesti population in prisons. "Our members are being extorted and threatened with transfer to the Sierra Chica prison," added Vásquez Haro.

Meeting with the United Nations LGBTI expert

This week, Otrans and other LGBTQ+ organizations will meet with the United Nations international expert on protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Vitit Muntarbhorn arrives in Argentina this week "with the aim of evaluating progress in eliminating violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the country," according to a statement from the United Nations News Centre. The expert will be in the country for ten days and will meet with representatives of the national and provincial governments, as well as with civil society organizations in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Mendoza.