By Alexis Oliva, from Córdoba. Azul Montoro, a 23-year-old trans woman, was murdered early this morning in a boarding house in Córdoba. She had gone there to look after a friend's room while she was away on a trip. Several LGBTQ+ organizations are calling for a demonstration today at 5 p.m. in front of the Police Headquarters. Others are considering filing a lawsuit regarding the murder. Azul was stabbed to death early this morning in a boarding house on Rincón Street, number 150, in downtown Córdoba. Police investigators are trying to locate the assailant by tracing the victim's cell phone. Azul Montoro was 23 years old and originally from Villa Mercedes, San Luis. She supported herself through sex work in the Mercado Norte area, three blocks from the boarding house where the crime took place. A friend had asked Azul to look after her room because she was going on a trip to San Juan. At five in the morning, one of her friends, Maina Carrizo, went to look for her at the boarding house. She found her dead and covered in blood, with a deep wound in her neck and several stab wounds in her chest. Azul's dog was also dead, and one of its ears had been cut off.

There is a suspect.

Maina Carrizo is an activist with the Association of Transvestites, Transsexuals, and Transgender People of Argentina (ATTTA), Córdoba branch, and as soon as she was able to react, she alerted the police and her organization. “She was brutally and treacherously murdered,” Celeste Giachetta, a representative of ATTTA Córdoba, told Presentes. She added that the Judicial Police and Prosecutor's Office 12, headed by Guillermo González, acted quickly and “already have a suspect.”

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Forensic investigators worked for several hours at the scene, and it wasn't until 10:15 this morning that the body was removed. At that time, the victim's mother was already traveling from San Luis to Córdoba. On the sidewalk outside the boarding house, about twenty friends and colleagues tried to understand the reason for such brutality. One of them, a member of the Laura Moyano Trans Sociocultural Center, recalled: “Azul was a sweetheart. She used to go to the Cultural Center to pick up food and condoms. Lately, she went less often because she was finding a better job. And look what happened to her…”

"The abandonment by the State leaves us exposed to violence."

“The violence that trans women must endure day after day reaches its peak in the horrific femicides perpetrated against our bodies. We condemn the state's abandonment of us, leaving us exposed to violence and hate crimes. The state is also responsible. Córdoba continues to lack concrete public policies for the protection, redress, and employment of trans people, endorsing sex work as the only means of survival,” states the ATTA press release.

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Several LGBTQ+ organizations are calling for a rally today at 5 p.m. in front of the Police Headquarters, at the corner of Colón and Santa Fe streets. Others are considering filing a lawsuit to prevent the crime from going unpunished. Ivanna Aguilera, president of Devenir Diverse, told Presentes: “All femicides are brutal, but transphobic murders are doubly vicious. In this case, they even killed her dog.” Aguilera is also the Provincial Representative of the Argentine Trans and Travesti Network, and believes prevention is possible: “Fifteen months ago, we presented a project to Councilor Miriam Acosta, president of the Gender Equity Committee of the City Council, for the Promotion of Formal Employment for Trans People, but it's still stalled. If projects like this were underway, Azul and so many others would be alive. They have no other option but prostitution, and prostitution kills. It's the State's responsibility. And we also need to work with the police and the courts.” The Laura Moyano Center also stated that they will do "everything possible to contribute to justice and ensure this crime does not go unpunished," as happened in the case that gives their organization its name: "So far, the prosecutor's office and the police have acted appropriately, but if we see that they want to close the case simply or not investigate it as a femicide or transphobic murder, we will try to become a private prosecutor so we can participate in the legal process." Laura Moyano, beaten with a rock and strangled in July 2015, and Azul Montoro are now part of a long list of trans victims without justice in Córdoba, such as Estrella Belén Sánchez, Denisse Montenegro, Cindy Arias, Vanesa Ledesma, Pamela Torres, Marion Gorak, and Viviana Echenique, among others.