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By Airam Fernández, from Santiago.
Photos: Presentes Archive/Josean Rivera.
In Chile, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) is the only organization that produces an annual report on the human rights situation focusing on sexual and gender diversity in the country. It has done so since 2002. This year's study will be published in February 2018.
A review of news reports on the
Movilh website from January 2017 to the present provides a glimpse, albeit limited, into the situation of violence against the LGBTI community in Chile. It is known that in 2017 at least 14 attacks were perpetrated against LGBT people using various forms of violence. Most of these attacks occurred in Santiago. There were at least two murders of LGBT people.

What about violence against LGBTI people?

What happened in each of these cases of violence? Did the victims receive any justice or reparations? In most of these attacks and acts of violence, with few exceptions, the perpetrators are not identified or convicted. To date, justice has only been served in two of these cases: a murder and a physical assault in a bar.
We documented the hate crimes that made the news in 2017 and what happened in each case during the process of obtaining justice.

Hate crime in Buin

Héctor Orlando Arce Serrano, 44, was the victim of a homophobic attack that shocked the town of Buin, where he lived, 40 minutes from Santiago. He died on May 5, after 21 days in a coma following a brutal beating. Rolando Jiménez, spokesperson for MOVILH (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation), told Presentes that the initial autopsy report revealed an “aggravated infection” due to a chronic illness the victim had suffered from for a year, which the family chose not to disclose.

The only account given by residents of this rural town of old houses is that on Friday, April 14, after Orlando went out for drinks, neighbors found him lying in a drainage ditch, surrounded by weeds and dirt. Unconscious, they managed to carry him to his parents' house, where he lived. They suspect that a man who frequently harassed him because of his sexual orientation was the one who attacked him.

AS FOLLOWS

The case is being handled by the San Bernardo Prosecutor's Office. So far, there are no arrests or suspects.

[READ MORE: He suffered a homophobic attack and died after 21 days in a coma: witnesses sought ]

Stabbed to death

According to the Movilh report, in October Álvaro was at a party with friends. On his way home to the Cerro Alegre alley in the Lomas de Oriente neighborhood, he ran into a neighbor who frequently harassed and verbally abused him, family members told local media. After an argument, the man, identified as César Araneda Palma, pulled out a knife and stabbed Álvaro near the heart. He died instantly, Chillán Homicide Brigade Deputy Chief Luis Garrido told the press.

AS FOLLOWS

César Araneda Palma, alias “El Mequi,” was arrested hours after the crime. The killer already had a criminal record for trespassing, drug offenses, and threats in a domestic violence context. He said he killed Álvaro to collect a debt. Prosecutor Eduardo Planck told the press that the Homicide Brigade is treating drug-related charges as the primary line of investigation. However, they have not yet ruled out the possibility that it was a homophobic crime, as the victim's family alleges. “An alleged drug dispute in no way means that homophobia is not present. On the contrary, in hostile and dangerous environments, homophobia is expressed with greater violence,” stated Esteban Guzmán, regional president of MOVILH (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation).

Homophobic attack in Recoleta

Nicolás Pérez is 26 years old and works at the Diversity Office of the Conchalí Municipality. There, he teaches crafts workshops to people with disabilities. He is also a prominent figure in the Santiago drag scene. It was in this capacity that he experienced one of the worst moments of his life. After a night of dancing, while walking home and still wearing traces of his 'Miss Edison' costume, he was brutally attacked.
On January 5, 2017, Nicolás was assaulted near the Iluminati bar in the Recoleta district. What began as a robbery turned into a homophobic attack when the assailants noticed he was wearing eyeliner and had makeup in his backpack. “Look, the faggot is wearing makeup… he’s a fucking queer,” Nicolás told The Clinic days after the attack, in a room at San José Hospital. There were two men. They punched, kicked, and kneed him, especially in the face.

AS FOLLOWS

After the attack, Nicolás managed to walk home. He was covered in blood, but no taxi driver would take him. The same thing happened on the way to the hospital. He had to walk to a fire station, accompanied by his mother. There, they were helped to flag down a taxi. He arrived at San José Hospital with a broken nose. He underwent maxillofacial surgery.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) reported the case to the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention. In November, Nicolás told the web show SinFiltra2 that it took him almost five months to recover and return to work. Underneath his face are multiple titanium plates and implants that help keep his bone structure together. No report was filed with any other agency. No one is looking for the attackers .

Anonymous threats in Limache

Luis Bravo is a councilman in Limache. On January 9th, upon leaving his office, he found a threatening note in the Limache Municipality parking lot. It was taped to one of his car windows: “In this municipality (sic) we don't want faggots, much less running Limache.”
The councilman made the incident public through his social media accounts, posting a photo of the note. He then filed a formal complaint with the Carabineros (Chilean police), on the recommendation of Senator Lily Pérez. The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) also echoed the incident, issuing a statement addressed to the mayor of Limache, Daniel Morales, demanding the implementation of measures against discrimination.

AS FOLLOWS

Until August, no one had been held responsible for this anonymous threat. Bravo confirmed this on his personal Facebook account when someone reminded him of the incident and asked if the perpetrator's identity had been revealed. A week later, in an interview with El Mercurio de Valparaíso, he suggested that the person responsible might be someone from the Municipality: “I don't know for sure, but it's very strange that they would leave a well-written note and stick it on the windshield during working hours.”  

Violence in the Antofagasta prison

Rafael Orellana, openly gay. Vicky Rosas Méndez and María del Pilar López are trans women. All three were incarcerated in the Antofagasta prison, serving sentences for various crimes. After being assaulted by prison officials, they were transferred.

Through a video and other images, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) denounced that these individuals had been beaten and tortured in the Antofagasta prison. This was not the first time such an incident had occurred. The complaint came to light two days after a ruling issued by the Antofagasta Guarantee Court, which declared that the Gendarmerie (Chilean prison service) should adopt “the necessary measures regarding the treatment of the appellants in consideration of their gender identity and expression in the daily internal regime,” referring to López and the two women who had been beaten in that prison.

AS FOLLOWS

Rolando Jiménez, spokesperson for MOVILH, met with the Undersecretary of Justice, Nicolás Mena, who pledged to investigate the incidents.
Judge Marco Antonio Rojas of the Antofagasta Guarantee Court ordered the transfer of the victims to Arica and La Serena. In August, the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled in favor of transgender people deprived of their liberty, concluding that security measures must be implemented by nursing staff of the same gender.
According to the Penitentiary Social Observatory, María del Pilar has already served 14 of her 15-year sentence. During this time, she has won six court cases against her for torture, discrimination, and reprisals perpetrated against her by Gendarmerie officials.

[READ MORE: CHILE: Torture of gays and trans people denounced in Antofagasta prison ]

Attack on the way to work

Sandra Ramírez, 38, lives in San Bernardo, a satellite city located 30 minutes from Santiago. On March 30, while waiting for a bus to go to work, she was attacked by two men and a woman wearing Nazi symbols, Movilh reported.
The attack occurred at the intersection of Avenida San José and Ducaud. “They approached me, punched me repeatedly, and hit me with a bottle, while yelling that people like me didn't deserve to live,” Sandra told Movilh. She was not robbed. Sandra managed to escape her attackers. At the Mutual de Seguridad (a workers' compensation clinic) in San Bernardo, she was diagnosed with a closed head injury, cervical sprain, and multiple contusions.

AS FOLLOWS

Although the complaint was filed by the victim at the 14th Police Station of San Bernardo on the same day as the attack, there are still no updates or arrests.

[READ MORE: Chile: Neo-Nazis attacked her for being a lesbian]

Beating at the disco

Canela Solís is a trans artist and performer. She lives in Santiago. On March 28, she was attacked by employees of the Row 16 nightclub after a show. In the middle of her performance, someone turned off the music. The owners and security guards of the club began shouting and trying to get people out. Apparently, there was a problem with a bottle of alcohol, Canela recounted on her Facebook account the day after the attack. A brawl broke out, and she was caught in the middle. “I’m going to kill you, you fucking faggot,” they yelled at her while several of them beat her. A friend rescued her and accompanied her to file a police report at the 1st Police Station. From there, she was taken in a patrol car to a hospital to have her injuries documented.

AS FOLLOWS

What happened at the nightclub resulted in a 16-page complaint, which Canela later filed with the Santiago West Local Prosecutor's Office, with guidance and support from the Municipality of Recoleta and the Legal Clinic of the University of Chile. A few months later, after several legal proceedings, paperwork, and summonses, Canela decided to withdraw the complaint, despite everyone urging her not to. “I decided to drop it because of my job. That would have meant going to court a thousand times, seeing these guys' faces a thousand times, and them seeing mine. Because of my job, that was too much of an exposure,” she told Presentes this week.

Threats from a councilman

Rubén Bustos is a law student and community leader in Cerro Navia, a district in northwestern Santiago. With the support of MOVILH (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation), Bustos filed two lawsuits against councilman David Urbina for death threats and defamation based on his sexual orientation, following an argument they had in May. A dispute over the loan of a projector allegedly triggered the wave of threats, which were delivered via WhatsApp audio messages.

AS FOLLOWS

The North Central Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the case ever since and has ordered protective measures for Bustos. At the time, Councilor Urbina declined to speak to the press about the incident. He later wrote on his Facebook account that he had been "harassed" by the leader several times and that this provoked a "moment of anger" in him. There are no further developments to date. Brigitte Viola Rodríguez.

Transphobic and xenophobic aggression

Briggite Viola Rodríguez is 26 years old and a trans woman. Nine years ago, she left Peru, her native country, to live in Santiago, Chile. Until last year, she worked in the nursing department of the Félix Bulnes Clinical Hospital. On June 10, she was attacked with blows and insults. She went to the Chilean justice system and reported the transphobic and racist attack. A security camera in an elevator recorded the aggressor, a man she had met at a nightclub that night.

READ MORE: She reported a transphobic and racist attack in Santiago, Chile: they are looking for the attacker

AS FOLLOWS

Hours after the attack, Brigitte reported the assault to the 46th Police Station of the Chilean National Police (Carabineros). She went to the local prosecutor's office in La Florida, southeast of the Chilean capital, to submit a medical report she had obtained on her own after the beating.

The case file, now bearing her first name, number 1700542974-9, is located at that prosecutor's office. The file contains no information about the assailant, as he managed to escape. The brief description of the report documented by the Carabineros reads: “Minor injuries. Psychologically affected.” Several weeks later, Brigitte received a call from the Prosecutor's Office requesting additional documents and evidence. She declined to pursue the case further.

Arbitrary, discriminatory and violent detention

Jonathan Fernández is 27 years old, works as a waiter, and lives in the Biobío region. In August, while participating in a protest against the approval of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, which involves the construction of a maritime terminal planned for the docking of gas transport ships, ten police officers from the Third Police Station of Penco got out of their patrol car to arrest him.
“When they got out, they pointed their guns at me and said, ‘That fucking faggot has to be caught.’ While they were kicking me on the ground, they were saying, ‘You fucking faggot, you have to die.’ It was horrible,” Fernández told the Movilh communications team. He was detained for a day at the Penco police station, then transferred to the hospital in Talcahuano.

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Eighth Police Zone of the Carabineros accepted the complaint. They said they would carry out the necessary procedures to bring the case to court. Movilh and the National Institute for Human Rights committed to monitoring the situation. There are no updates so far.

Lesbophobic neighbors

Dominga Moreau and Melannie León have been a couple for four years. Dominga is 28 and Melannie is 25. They were attacked by their own neighbors. They were forced to move from their home in downtown Santiago due to constant lesbophobic attacks.
 
Three neighbors insulted them, beat them, and threatened to kill them. Previously, they had attacked and damaged the facade of their home. They didn't want to live near these "dirty lesbians," as they called them. The women left their home on Thursday, August 24, and out of fear, didn't return until Sunday the 27th. After leaving work, they went to the 4th police station in Santiago to file a report. With the support of MOVILH (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation) and police protection, they removed all their belongings.

AS FOLLOWS

Two weeks later, on September 12, the victims filed a lawsuit against their former neighbors, Érika Lizana, her daughter Javiera Sepúlveda, and her husband, Jorge Areco, who still live peacefully in the same place. The lawsuit, filed in the Seventh Guarantee Court of Santiago, demands the application of the aggravating circumstance stipulated in the Zamudio Law.

[READ MORE: Neighbors attack a lesbian couple: they had to leave their home ]

Bar assault

Patricio Díaz Bravo is a TV presenter for a regional channel, well-known in Puerto Natales, where he lives. He ended the night of September 2nd with fifteen stitches in his face. This was after an altercation with Yerka Torres Ojeda, who had verbally assaulted him on previous occasions, according to regional media reports. In a bar, the woman threw a glass at his face after the argument. She was yelling at him, calling him a "faggot" and a "queer."
The
aggressor fled, but justice caught up with her. On September 7th, she was formally charged with aggravated assault. At the hearing, prosecutor Lorena Carrasco stated that the attack had homophobic undertones. The Puerto Natales Court of Letters and Guarantees in the Magallanes Region granted a 70-day period for the investigation. Meanwhile, the aggressor is under house arrest.
Álvaro Constanzo Hidalgo was 38 years old when he was stabbed to death in the city of Chillán, where he lived. His friends called him "Bárbara."

Assault in a shared dwelling

René Salas works as a cleaning assistant, is openly gay, and lives in downtown Santiago. He shares a house with several people, including a man who rents one of the rooms. On October 21, René was insulted by Roberto Vílchez in the house where they both rent rooms. The attack came “out of nowhere,” the victim told Movilh. “Fucking faggot, faggot, good for nothing, people like you shouldn’t exist,” were some of the phrases he yelled at him while hitting him.
WHAT'S NEXT
On November 7, René filed a lawsuit with the support of Movilh. He accused his housemate of homophobia, insults, beatings, and death threats. He stated that the abuse had been occurring for three months. The complaint was filed with the Third Police Station of the Carabineros in Santiago. Movilh stated that the events described by the victim "constitute the crime of threats, as well as the aggravating circumstance of discrimination stipulated in the Zamudio Law." The investigation is ongoing.

Attack on gay couple in a park in Las Condes

This week, a young gay couple was in Araucano Park in Las Condes (Santiago) when a man around 60 years old approached on a bicycle and assaulted them, threatening to kill them for kissing and hugging. “I’m armed, don’t provoke me. Dare to shout ‘faggot,’” the young men recounted the aggressor saying when they began recording the attack with a phone.
The
Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) reported these events to Mayor Joaquín Lavín, who pledged to collaborate to ensure justice is served
.