By Airam Fernández, from Santiago, Chile. Vicky Rosas Méndez, a Colombian trans woman incarcerated at the Biobío Penitentiary Center in Concepción, reported that she was beaten and tortured by three prison guards. The Movement for Homosexual Liberation (Movilh) received the complaint two weeks ago but only made it public on Tuesday, after a series of procedures. This coincided with the heated debate surrounding the Gender Identity Law , which has been under consideration in Congress for four years. Rosa Méndez says this is not the first time she has been beaten while incarcerated. In February of last year, she was transferred to this prison from the Antofagasta jail after experiencing a similar incident along with her partner, Cristofer Fidel Carrasco Galvez, and two other people: one gay and one trans.

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

“Horses, bitches and faggots”

Esteban Guzmán, one of the regional spokespeople for Movilh, told Presentes details of the attack: “They knocked Vicky to the ground and beat her with a stick.” According to the complaint, her boyfriend was also beaten. In a video that the organization released on its website, she shows her bruised back. They said they were called “horses,” “bitches,” and “faggots,” among other insults. https://youtu.be/7tKNqrtwIl4 In a statement, Movilh denounced Sub-Officer Jorge González Roa and two captains, whose last names they were only able to identify as Molsalve and Valenzuela, as responsible. “Besides the constant mistreatment and discrimination Victoria experiences for being a trans woman, she told us that lately they've been threatening to separate her from her partner. 'He's also incarcerated with her, in module 88 of the Concepción prison. That's how an argument started that ended in the beating,' Guzmán recounted. Before arriving in Concepción, the prison guards—Guzmán says—mistreated her. 'They beat her, they wouldn't let her bring in basic things like soap or shampoo.' Rolando Jiménez, national spokesperson for MOVILH, met in February with the Undersecretary of Justice, Nicolás Mena. The official pledged to investigate the events that occurred at the Antofagasta prison. After that, the Gendarmerie was sanctioned eight times by different courts due to abuses in various prisons across the country. Esteban Guzmán states that they still don't know exactly when this latest incident occurred. “As soon as she could, she called us to report him. The truth is, she’s very scared,” she said by phone from the city of Concepción.

“The Gendarmerie is a dangerous institution for diversity.”

In Chile, there are no official figures on how many transgender people are serving sentences in prisons. However, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) reports 13 cases of discrimination and torture against LGBTI inmates in various prisons across the country in 2017 alone. One such case is that of Victoria Rosas Méndez at the beginning of last year. As a result, Judge Marco Antonio Rojas of the Antofagasta Guarantee Court ordered her transfer to this new prison as a protective measure. In August, the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled in favor of all transgender people deprived of their liberty, concluding that security measures must be implemented by nursing staff of the same gender. “The fact that these situations occur not just once, but repeatedly, demonstrates that the Gendarmerie is a dangerous institution for the LGBTQ+ community,” Guzmán stated.

[READ ALSO: Historic ruling: there will be an exclusive pavilion for detained trans and transvestite people ]

This week, Movilh sent a letter to the national director of Gendarmerie, Jaime Rojas Flores, demanding an investigation and immediate measures regarding this and other irregularities at the Biobío Penitentiary Compliance Center.

No official response

Presentes attempted to contact Verónica Hernández, the human rights officer at the Regional Directorate of the Gendarmerie, who has participated in several training sessions on sexual diversity for prison staff. However, they have not yet received a response. Nor has the Gendarmerie's Communications Directorate responded to requests for an institutional statement regarding these events and information on the fate of the officers identified by MOVILH as responsible for the beating of Victoria Rosas Méndez and her boyfriend. ]]>