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By Rosario Marina 

LGBT organizations in Buenos Aires province denounced that the 5th LGBTI Pride March in the Province of Buenos Aires was in danger due to a refusal by municipal authorities.

The statement circulating yesterday was from the organizing committee of the mobilization and warned: “We want to inform you of the refusal by the department headed by Mayor Julio Garro to allow the march, which has a deeply political purpose of protest and protest.” The problem was that, five days before the event, they had received an email requesting that they change the date because there were no urban control personnel available to guarantee security.

[READ ALSO: Map of #Pride2018: this is how Argentina is progressing]

Spokespeople for Mayor Julio Garro, of the Cambiemos coalition, responded today that “it is not true that the municipality prohibited the march” and called for “learning to build through dialogue.” The organizing committee will file a writ of habeas corpus to request security for the demonstration.

The reason: “We had two prior commitments with community policing and citizen control agents of massive scale, namely Picurba at the Children's Republic and Roger Waters at the Unique Stadium. All on the same day,” they told Presentes.

[READ ALSO: Attempted transvesticide case against Otrans leader sent to trial]

The email the municipality sent to the organizers suggests changing the date. “They tell us they don't have enough urban control personnel. This is because of the Roger Waters concert, which is at night, and the Picurba festival, which takes place at the Children's Republic. These are two private events. We've been meeting since April and we always submit all the necessary permits,” Claudia Vázquez Haro, leader of the OTRANS organization, told Presentes . “This is a policy of attrition because we know there will never be a date for us,” she insisted.

March and habeas corpus

The commission, made up of 30 social, human rights, labor, student, and political organizations, decided that the demonstration will proceed as planned on Saturday, November 10th at 2:00 PM. It will be held in Plaza San Martín, in front of the provincial government building. Among their key messages are: "Stop torturing and killing transvestites and trans people," and "No to the urban coexistence code."

They will denounce the militarization of the red-light district, the discriminatory practices of the mayor, and the arbitrary arrests of transvestites and trans people.

[READ ALSO: Attempted transvesticide case against Otrans leader sent to trial]

Furthermore, the organizing committee of the 5th LGBTI Pride March is already preparing a habeas corpus petition to present today with the aim of formally notifying the Buenos Aires security minister, Cristian Ritondo, and thus demanding that he provide them with the corresponding security at the march with clear requirements: that the officers not be armed, the presence of an ambulance, and the participation of human rights defenders.

The leader of OTRANS highlighted the connection between this situation and the urban coexistence code: “What lies beneath this refusal is another issue. And it's not an isolated incident; what Garro is trying to punish with his new urban coexistence code is the criminalization of social protest, and in this criminalization, the most vulnerable sectors are those of sexual diversity, especially trans and travesti women.”