Angie Velasquez was searched in the street, forced to undress, subjected to police abuse, and then imprisoned in Florencio Varela. During the month she spent in detention, her health deteriorated. She died yesterday. The organization Otrans Argentina, of which Angie was a member, filed a lawsuit today against a judge and three prosecutors for “Aggravated homicide in conjunction with torture by action and omission and in conjunction with illicit association.” By Catalina Dowbley, from La Plata. The civil association Otrans filed a complaint against Judge Juan Pablo Masi, prosecutors Álvaro Garganta and Marcelo Seiler, and deputy prosecutor Granados, for “Aggravated homicide in conjunction with torture by action and omission and in conjunction with illicit association.” This is in connection with the death of Angie Velasquez, a trans activist who had been detained for a month in Unit 32 of Florencio Varela. This is the second such case this year. “We are here to denounce this, to say enough is enough to the persecution, to say enough is enough to the criminalization. Because this State, at the national, provincial, and municipal levels, is a right-wing State that, since taking power, has persecuted our comrades through its hardline policies and ended up killing them,” Claudia Vásquez Haro, president of Otrans Argentina, told Presentes . She made these remarks during this morning's demonstration in front of the La Plata Courthouse, after submitting the written complaint. Otrans denounces that Velásquez was denied medical attention and the necessary medication for her chronic illness while in prison.

[READ ALSO: “Trans people are criminalized, imprisoned, and ultimately killed” ]

For this reason, on March 2nd, the organization filed a writ of habeas corpus denouncing the worsening of Angie's detention conditions. A week later, when Angie was transferred to cellblock 11, the magistrate was informed that this location was unsuitable for her health condition, but he did not respond. Angie's health continued to deteriorate, with fevers reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit). The last time she was seen alive, she was about to be transferred to the Olmos prison hospital in La Plata. But when her fellow inmates went to visit her, they were informed of her death and shown her body. They were not told when or how she had died.

Two deaths in two months

Angie Velasquez is the second trans migrant detained in Florencio Varela to die in 2017. Like former Miss Latin America Trans, Pamela Macedo Paduro, Angie was a victim of institutional violence and imprisoned by the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service, where they were denied access to the medication and healthcare they needed. “There is a persecution because they are transvestites, poor, and migrants,” she said, as did Vásquez Haro.

[READ ALSO: Demands for justice for the death of a trans woman detained in Florencio Varela ]

The organization also criticized the doctors at the "Mi Pueblo" Hospital in Florencio Varela, because they believe Velásquez was transferred three times but then returned to the prison. "They take them there when they are terminally ill, give them an IV, and then take them back to the prison. For international organizations, this is torture," added Vásquez Haro.

“They had an obligation to prevent this outcome.”

“All these actors operate in collusion. They cannot claim ignorance of this; they knew this was going to happen, they could have imagined this outcome. They had an obligation to prevent this outcome, they had the power to prevent this outcome, and yet, in two months, we have the deaths of two trans women, detained by the same prosecutor, the same judge, under the same conditions, in the same prison,” she told Present Luciana Sánchez, the lawyer for Otrans, also emphasized that they constantly report these situations – last year they filed 36 habeas corpus petitions – without receiving a response from the provincial government.

Armed causes

After subjecting her to all kinds of abuse in the street, the police arrested Angie Velasquez, accusing her of possessing less than two grams of cocaine. They charged her with “drug trafficking.” The police used a similar methodology to arrest Macedo Panduro. “The charges they fabricate are ridiculous, they’re illegal, they’re drug-related charges based on police arbitrariness,” said Sánchez. Furthermore, Angie was held at Police Station 11 in Ringuelet (La Plata), which is illegal, since legislation and protocols state that police stations cannot hold detainees. Angie’s friends still don’t know the circumstances of her death or where her body was taken.

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