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By Elena Corvalán, from Salta

Mirna Antonella Di Marzo, a 30-year-old transgender woman, is in critical condition in intensive care at the Joaquín Castellanos public hospital in the city of General Güemes, 50 kilometers from the city of Salta. She has been in this condition since the early hours of Sunday, October 21, when she was attacked by a man outside the Caribe nightclub. She has not regained consciousness since then, and her family is desperate because she has already suffered two cardiorespiratory arrests, her sister, Norma Di Marzo, reported today.

According to acquaintances, Mirna's family knows that she left the nightclub around 5 a.m., believed to be heading for her motorcycle when she was attacked. She was found between 6 and 7 a.m. on the same block as the nightclub, unconscious, with head injuries, and without her underwear. This is not the first time Mirna has been attacked due to gender-based violence.

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The Public Prosecutor's Office of Salta reported that the aggressor has been identified and arrested. He had his formal arraignment hearing before Criminal Prosecutor's Office 3 of the Unit for Serious Crimes Against Persons in the city of Salta, presided over by Prosecutor Rodrigo González Miralpeix. However, the identity of the accused was not released, a fact criticized by activist Pía Ceballos, one of the directors of the Observatory of Violence Against Women in the province of Salta and a member of Trans Women of Argentina (ATA).

“The girl is immediately identified, but not the aggressor. They report details about the victim, her private life, but we know nothing about the aggressor,” lamented Pía Ceballos. She also believes the incident should be classified as “attempted transvesticide and transfemicide.”

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“She’s in bad shape. She’s not waking up, she has blood clots in her head, she has fractures, so she’s in bad shape,” her sister Norma told Presentes. It’s still unclear whether Antonella also suffered a sexual assault, although she emphasized that her underwear was not found.

They are asking witnesses to come forward and testify

Anto, as her loved ones call her, lives with her mother. She was a regular at the Caribe nightclub, always going there with friends. The current theory is that she was alone when she went to get her motorcycle. She had the key in one of her hands when she was found unconscious by neighbors, who managed to see the attacker, according to the account confirmed by the family.

Speaking to local media, Norma urged witnesses to come forward and testify. “If it happened to me today, it could happen to any member of your family tomorrow,” she said. She added that her sister’s life “is at stake.”

Norma Di Marzo said that her sister had resumed her secondary studies, and that she did not work, because "with those conditions they can never get a job, it is very rare for someone to give them a job."

Structural violence against trans and transvestites

“What happened to Antonella is terrible, and it's linked to the process we're experiencing today, a process of violence that the government is encouraging. There are groups actively working to generate this violence; they are anti-rights groups,” said Pía Ceballos, who is in contact with the victim's family.

Pía Ceballos pointed out that the concept of social transvesticide refers precisely to a framework of rights: “Where were all the other state institutions to guarantee that person a dignified life, that is, to guarantee their inclusion?” the activist asked. For her, the lack of legislation and campaigns that inform about discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity fosters violent reactions.

She added that there is also the presence of “anti-rights groups, led by the Catholic Church and evangelical churches,” which “are strongly promoting a discourse that claims it is gender ideology or that they are against Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) or against gender identity.” In reality, she warned, they are “ against human rights , and what they generate socially is an increase in violence within our community.”

After detailing attacks in various parts of the country, and those experienced daily in the province of Salta, Ceballos states that today this violence “has intensified considerably, and we can clearly feel it because it has resurfaced without any pretense; it is permissible under a government that allows it.” She added: “We have to be extremely vigilant and look out for each other. Because they endorse it, it is legitimized by legislators who are anti-rights, who are ‘pro-life.’ The worst part is that in this push for regression, we, the trans women, are the first to die.”