Transfemicide in Paraguay: it's the second in a month
Nikol Ortellado, a 24-year-old trans woman, was murdered in Puerto Obligado (southern Paraguay) early this morning, just two days before the LGBTI Pride march that will be held in Asunción and other cities in the country this Saturday.
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By María Sanz, from Asunción
Nikol Ortellado, a 24-year-old trans woman, was murdered in Puerto Obligado (southern Paraguay) early this morning, just two days before the LGBTI Pride march that will be held in Asunción and other cities in the country this Saturday.
Nikol lived in the San Miguel neighborhood of Puerto Obligado, a town about 60 kilometers from the city of Encarnación, which borders the Argentine city of Posadas. Early Thursday morning, Nikol was stabbed multiple times and suffered internal bleeding that caused her death, Viki Acosta, president of Panambí , an association that brings together transvestites, transsexuals, and transgender people in Paraguay, explained to Presentes.
[READ ALSO: “Waiting for death”: how trans people live and die in Paraguay]
“This is yet another hate crime, bringing the total number of murders of transgender people to 61” since the end of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship in Paraguay in 1989, Acosta stated. She added that, to date, “none of these cases have been solved,” even though in some of these murders, “the perpetrators have confessed to the crimes.”
“Hate crimes are driven by fundamentalists”
“We remain on high alert for trans people. Hate crimes are being driven by fundamentalists, by this wave of anti-rights sentiment at the regional level, which is against all LGBTI people, and particularly trans identities,” Acosta stated.
Before Nikol's murder, the last transfemicide in Paraguay was that of Naomi , who exactly one month ago was murdered with machetes, and then incinerated in the city of Piribebuy (about 100 kilometers from Asunción).
A 19-year-old man confessed to committing the crime and led police to the location where he had buried the body of Naomi, who was 29 years old.
[READ ALSO: #Paraguay: A 29-year-old trans woman was brutally murdered]
Furthermore, on October 15, 2017, Romina Vargas, a 28-year-old trans woman, was murdered in Greater Asunción. In this case, too, a man was found with the knife he used to stab her and, laughing, confessed to the media that he had committed the murder and that he would do it again because of his “hatred of trans women.”
October 15th is precisely the date that Panambí and other trans organizations want declared as National Trans Day, to advocate for the rights of trans people and to remember the 61 victims of hate crimes since 1989. To this end, this Friday they will present a letter to the president of the Paraguayan Congress, requesting legal recognition of this date in honor of Romina. The action will take place within the framework of the IV National Trans Meeting, which will bring together trans people from the capital and various departments of the country in Asunción.
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