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From Lima, Esteban Marchand

Illustration: Florencia Capella

San Martín de Porres, a district in Lima, made headlines because its 2017 Local Citizen Security Plan included, among other points, the "eradication of homosexuals." An official document even claimed to have "eradicated" 33 homosexuals in 2016. When this became public, the mayor had to apologize, saying it was a drafting error. Not everyone believed him.

"Eradication of homosexuals"

The 2017 Local Citizen Security Plan for San Martín de Porres, which details the plans to be implemented this year, includes a section on “Municipal Infractions.” This section presents a list of the infractions the municipality seeks to eradicate in order to improve citizen security. One of the tables, on page 33, lists the municipal infractions.

These include the "eradication of baseball players" and the "eradication of homosexuals." In other words, it considers homosexuality a municipal offense, just like consuming alcohol and drugs in public or littering.

One of the first people to raise the alarm about this document was Augusto Rey, a city councilor in Lima. He did so via his Twitter account.

Incredibly, the Municipality of SMP considers homosexuality a crime and claims to have eradicated 33 homosexuals. (?) pic.twitter.com/vFpelWF54M

— Augusto Rey (@augustoreyh) September 11, 2017

After learning this, Congressman Alberto De Belaunde (PPK) sent a letter to the district mayor of San Martín de Porres, Adolfo Mattos Piaggio, and expressed his rejection of the document.

Letter sent to the mayor of San Martín de Porres regarding the unacceptable "eradication of homosexuals" pic.twitter.com/WEiMNnlzdv

— Alberto de Belaunde (@AlbertoBelaunde) September 11, 2017

“Such information deserves to be rejected outright, as its content implies that eradicating these citizens would help combat crime. Furthermore, it is a clear act of discrimination that cannot be tolerated or encouraged by government bodies, as it contributes to the criminalization of this segment of the population,” the congressman stated.

De Belaunde reported that the districts of Ate, Lima, Cineguilla , La Victoria and San Luis also include the “eradication of homosexuals” in their security plans.

According to a chart prepared by the Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Promsex), only 14 of the 43 districts of Metropolitan Lima have any regulations protecting homosexual people. The other 29 do not address the issue.

The security plan document was corrected

Following the public outcry, the municipality of San Martín de Porres issued an apology in a statement. It indicated that the phrase should have read “eradication of homosexual prostitution in public spaces” and not “eradication of homosexuals.”

The error has already been corrected in the current security plan

For Liliana Huaraca, an activist with Matrimonio Igualitario Perú (Equal Marriage Peru) and a resident of San Martín de Porres, this is not a simple “drafting error.” “It is precisely in documents like these that the high level of stereotypes and the complete lack of knowledge that authorities have about the reality of LGBTQ+ people becomes evident. I grew up and live in San Martín de Porres. It feels terrible to know that your own mayor and municipality are unaware of your existence or want to ‘eradicate’ you from the district,” she told Presentes. She emphasized that these types of public policies based on prejudice and homophobia must be combated.

We must remember that the logic of eradicating people brought with it violence and death. RT @Munismp @padelriol @malditaternura @AlbertoBelaunde pic.twitter.com/8RCioq9WYr

— Promsex (@promsex) September 12, 2017

The Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights reiterated that eradicating human beings is a practice that ultimately only leads to violence. What must be eradicated, it emphasized, is racism.