While in Argentina, in front of the Malvinas Argentinas Prosecutor's Office, the crowd demanding Higui de Jesús's freedom also brought their demands for justice for the murder of Chilean Nicole Saavedra, in Chile, a group of self-organized lesbians gathered on Wednesday in front of the Argentine Embassy in Santiago to demand justice for Higui. By Cristian Godoy García. The echo of the cries demanding Higui's freedom crossed the Andes. On April 26, International Lesbian Visibility Day, in Santiago, Chile, a group of self-organized lesbians planned a protest in front of the Argentine Embassy last Wednesday. The meeting place was at the foot of Santa Lucía Hill, at the mural with the image of the iconic Gabriela Mistral. After reading a speech in which they recounted Higui de Jesús's case (links) and recalled that ten months had passed since the murder of Nicole Saavedra (link), who was kidnapped, beaten, and killed for being a lesbian last June. The group of women left in a caravan from Santiago's main avenue, La Alameda, towards the Argentine embassy a few streets away.

[READ ALSO: Higui de Jesús will remain in prison: they ask to change the defense ]

At the front, two of the girls carried a black flag with yellow lettering that read “Visible Lesbians,” while the rest of the group handed out pamphlets detailing both cases. Higui and Nicole were attacked for being lesbians, for being visible, for being poor, for existing and resisting in this classist, heteropatriarchal society. Nicole couldn't defend herself against her attackers. Higui did, and she is a survivor who is now imprisoned.

"We want to be alive, free, and visible."

During the march to the embassy, ​​a police car approached the crowd and asked for the names of the organizers. One of the young women replied, “We are self-organized lesbians, there are no leaders. Just write: The lesbians, butch lesbians, queers, whatever.” When they arrived, chanting “Less macho, more lesbians,” they gathered around the flag, and one of them read a speech that ended with: “(...)Higui is alive, demonstrating that we want to exist, that our lesbian existence deserves to confront every violent, lesbophobic macho who crosses our path, that it deserves to confront the state, heteroclassist injustice, and the institutions that uphold it. That our existence in freedom is worth more, and that we want to be alive, free, and visible. We want to be lesbians, transvestites, trans people, gay men, women, or however we want to exist and call ourselves.”

 "Victims of patriarchal and classist justice"

That Wednesday, which was International Lesbian Visibility Day, about one hundred people marched to the Prosecutor's Office in Malvinas Argentinas to demand Higui's release and to support her family, who were meeting the prosecutor for the first time. Several feminist movements and LGBTQ+ organizations joined the protest and also remembered Nicole Saavedra, the 23-year-old lesbian woman murdered ten months earlier in Chile.

[READ ALSO: “It was a hate crime”: Ten months later, Nicole’s murder remains unpunished ]

“There are many Higuises who are victims of patriarchal and classist injustice. Because being a lesbian in the City is not the same as being in the deep suburbs. And that's why there are so many of us here today. This isn't just any case, it's not just another case. Just like Diana's (Sacayán) case wasn't. Trans or lesbian, it's the same gaze from the justice system and society on our bodies,” she told Presents Saya Sacayán, Diana's brother and one of the members of the Justice for Higui Commission.]]>