Another trans woman dies in confinement: the fourth in 2017.
Photos: Facebook and Otrans Argentina. Damaris Becerra Jurado died in the early hours of November 26th at Penitentiary Unit No. 32 in Florencio Varela. Her death is the fourth of a trans woman in prison this year. Her name joins a list that includes two other detainees in the…
Share
Photos: Facebook and Otrans Argentina. Damaris Becerra Jurado died in the early hours of November 26th at Penitentiary Unit No. 32 in Florencio Varela. Her death is the fourth of a trans woman in prison this year. Her name joins a list that includes two other detainees at the Varela unit, Pamela Macedo Panduro (29 years old) and Angie Velázquez Ramírez (36 years old), as well as Brandy Bardales Sangama (43), who died after suffering following a police arrest. All of them are Peruvian migrants and activists with Otrans. The organization has been denouncing these as arbitrary arrests and fabricated charges, followed by degrading treatment, lack of access to healthcare, and ultimately, death.
[ALSO READ: Historic ruling: There will be an exclusive ward for detained trans and transvestite women]
Last Sunday, Damaris fainted; there was a delay in attending to her, and she arrived at the hospital lifeless. The investigation into Damaris' death is being handled by Prosecutor Marcelo Selier, head of UFI N 9, and the autopsy. The autopsy results will be released next week. Damaris was 40 years old and suffered from a chronic illness. arrested without conviction Two and a half years ago, along with six other colleagues who remain deprived of their freedom in an investigation that they have been denouncing as a fabricated case.[ALSO READ: Historic ruling: There will be an exclusive ward for detained trans and transvestite women]
“People don’t die from a chronic illness, but from lack of treatment.”
Damaris had already denounced on several occasions, along with Otrans, that her right to access healthcare was not being guaranteed.We have many doubts about the cause of death: it's not that people die from a chronic illness, but from a lack of treatment,” Luciana Sánchez, a lawyer from the Collective for Diversity (COPADI) in the Impossible Litigation area, which provides legal sponsorship to OTRANS, told Presentes. Sánchez estimates that there are around 50 trans people detained in similar conditions in pavilion 11 of Florencio Varela. “We had already filed two collective habeas corpus petitions when we visited the prison with a judge and confirmed that the infirmary is staffed by the inmates themselves. Furthermore, they are locked up for more than 12 hours a day, two or three to a cell, in cells designed for only one person. The court orders to guarantee their health conditions were not followed,” Sánchez added. Otrans Argentina reports that they were never called to ratify the complaints they filed.He had denounced a lack of access to healthcare.
The Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM) has a Committee Against Torture, which visited Damaris in March of this year. She told them that she suffered from hypertension, pain in her left leg, numbness in her extremities, discharge from one ear, and spots on her body. At the end of March, the organization filed a writ of habeas corpus due to the worsening of Damaris's detention conditions and lack of medical attention, but the CPM says that Criminal Court No. 2 rejected it, arguing that they "did not perceive that Damaris was lacking medical attention." In March she was summoned to appear and the Court requested a report from the health department of UP 32, which responded that Damaris had an appointment with the ENT specialist: the Court concluded that she was being treated.[READ ALSO: “Trans people are criminalized, imprisoned, and ultimately killed”]
Damaris Becerra Jurado with the photo of Miguel Bru, a student murdered and disappeared in the ninth police station of La Plata.
Arbitrary arrests and fabricated charges
The case for which Damaris was detained began with a report of the arrest of ET, a colleague who was subjected to an anal search in a public place. “This type of search is prohibited, but the justice system validated it and allowed it to proceed,” lawyer Sánchez told Presentes. This search, which is part of the case (see photo), was not only illegal from a procedural standpoint: it also failed to respect gender identity in the written report, as required by law. Law 26743: “All rules, regulations or procedures must respect the human right to gender identity of individuals.”[READ ALSO: The UN demands that Argentina put a stop to the persecution of transvestites and trans people]
[READ ALSO: Demands for justice for the death of a trans woman detained in Florencio Varela]
“The death of Damaris adds to that of Pamela, Angie, and Brandy, and is the result of the systematic persecution experienced by the trans and travesti community in La Plata,” Claudia Vázquez Haro, president of Otrans Argentina, told Presentes. Regarding the case that led to Dameris and her companions' arrest, the Buenos Aires provincial justice system declared itself incompetent and sent the file to the Federal Court. There was no resolution there either, and the case was returned to the province. “Despite all the complaints we filed in the courts of La Plata and internationally, the judiciary continues to endorse arbitrary arrests and police persecution. This is not possible without the political support of the current administration. In other words, it is the State that ends up killing our comrades, through negligence and the conditions of detention in which they are held,” she added.The Provincial Commission for Memory requested reports on this death
The CPM (Provincial Commission for Memory) submitted a request to the Prosecutor's Office on Monday for the forensic examination to be conducted taking into account Damaris's medical history and the lack of medical treatment. They also requested a copy of the autopsy report to review with CPM doctors the records of medical personnel present at the time of death, the record of any medication she was taking, if any, and a photographic record of the autopsy. “The lack of medical care in prison units reflects the inhumane and degrading treatment to which incarcerated individuals are subjected. Furthermore, this population is particularly vulnerable because they are mostly foreign nationals who lack family to provide them with medication. They depend on their fellow inmates both inside and outside the prison,” she told Presentes. Deputy Director of Inspection of Detention Places of the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM), Fabián Bernal.
Penitentiary Unit 32 of Florencio Varela
For Bernal, these deaths reflect a structural problem. “It is the Ministry of Justice that is responsible for safeguarding the health of these people. And we know that the prison health system is incapable of ensuring the human right to health. It should be the Provincial Ministry of Health that is responsible for guaranteeing this right,” Bernal told Presentes .
[READ ALSO: Judge and prosecutors charged with homicide after the death of another trans activist]
He added that “people who enter the penal system with a pathology then worsen while incarcerated. Prioritizing the right to health is a political decision that reflects the inhumane and degrading treatment to which people deprived of their liberty are subjected.” In a statement, Otrans demands answers from “the state agencies that claim to visit prisons once a week while these deaths occur. We demand explanations and answers from the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), which theoretically conducts regular visits to the prison, and from Santiago Canton, Secretary of Human Rights of the Province of Buenos Aires, who is responsible in the province for ensuring that the human rights of the trans and travesti community are not violated.”]]>We are Present
We are committed to a type of journalism that delves deeply into the realm of the world and offers in-depth research, combined with new technologies and narrative formats. We want the protagonists, their stories, and their struggles to be present.
SUPPORT US
FOLLOW US
Related Notes
We Are Present
This and other stories don't usually make the media's attention. Together, we can make them known.