Share

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

By María Sanz, from Asunción

Ada Mía Naomi Gomes Rivas, a 29-year-old transgender woman, was murdered in the Naranjo area, near the city of Piribebuy (about 100 kilometers east of Asunción). Her family had reported her missing on Monday, August 27. A 19-year-old man, César Guzmán Franco Ruiz, confessed to the murder and led the police to the location where he had buried Naomi's body. He explained that he killed her with a machete and then burned her body.

Franco Ruiz worked as an employee at a fast food restaurant, according to his statement, and this Friday he was charged with intentional homicide with aggravating circumstances, explained the prosecutor in the case, Gloria Gamarra, to Presentes.

[READ ALSO: #HateCrimes2017: More than 400 reports of violence against LGBT people in Paraguay]

Specifically, Gamarra mentioned sections 3 and 4 of Article 105 of the Paraguayan Penal Code, which pertains to intentional homicide. These sections stipulate that the penalty for this crime can be increased to 25 years in prison if the perpetrator subjects the victim to “serious and unnecessary physical or psychological pain, to increase their suffering,” or if they act “in a treacherous manner, intentionally taking advantage of the victim’s defenselessness.” The Prosecutor’s Office believes that both of these circumstances were present in the murder of Naomi.

Hate crimes

For its part, the organization Panambí, which defends the rights of transvestites, transsexuals, and transgender people in Paraguay, expressed its “great sadness, concern, and outrage” at this murder. “At Panambí, we believe that these crimes are committed out of hatred, discrimination, and rejection of our identity or sexual orientation,” the organization stated in a press release.

Furthermore, the Paraguayan Network for Sexual Diversity (Repadis) condemned on its social networks the “atrocious and brutal murder” of Naomi, and demanded that the authorities “investigate, charge and convict the confessed perpetrator, and investigate whether there are more people responsible for this regrettable and horrendous crime.”

Naomi's murder brings the total number of transgender people killed in hate crimes in Paraguay since the end of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship in 1989 to 60, according to data from Panambí. Most of these cases remain unsolved. However, in the two previous murders of transgender people before Naomi's, the alleged perpetrators were arrested.

In October 2017, Romina Vargas, a 28-year-old trans woman , was murdered in Greater Asunción by a 21-year-old man, who confessed to the crime smiling and without shame, and expressed that he felt hatred towards trans people.

In addition, in December 2016, Andrea González, a 20-year-old trans woman with a hearing impairment . The crime occurred in Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil. Police arrested a man in connection with the crime, but later granted him house arrest.