Colombia: Lesbian activist shot dead
Liliana Holguín, a 40-year-old lesbian leader from Colombia, was murdered on February 25 in Caucasia, in the department of Antioquia, Colombia. This was reported on the website of the LGBTI organization Caribe Afirmativo, of which Holguín was a member. In addition to being an activist, Holguín worked as a motorcycle taxi driver.
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Liliana Holguín, a 40-year-old lesbian leader from Colombia, was murdered on February 25 in Caucasia, in the department of Antioquia, Colombia. This was reported on the website of the LGBTI organization Caribe Afirmativo , of which Holguín was a member. In addition to being an activist, Holguín worked as a motorcycle taxi driver. She was shot while riding her motorcycle with her nephew on the road between Guáramo and Caucasia. This is the second murder of an LGBT person in the municipality this year and the sixth in less than 14 months.
Holguín participated in the training process of Caribe Afirmativo, an organization dedicated to researching and promoting the human rights of LGBTI people. From there, they address post-conflict issues and peacebuilding in a cross-cutting manner for people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.
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The activist spearheaded efforts to improve the living conditions of activists in the subregion. One of her goals was to halt the forced displacement of some activists.
In Colombia there are more than 6 million displaced people, and more than 589 social leaders have been murdered since November 2016, the year in which the peace agreements between the Santos government and the FARC were signed.
Caribe Afirmativo called for the implementation of necessary protection mechanisms for all LGBT people in the municipality. They also demanded that the Prosecutor's Office expedite its investigations. Furthermore, they requested that the Police and the Ombudsman's Office strengthen protection and violence prevention measures against LGBTI people.
The organization reported that this is the second murder this year in the municipality and the sixth in less than 14 months. Previously, a young gay man who was an activist for new masculinities and collaborated with soccer fan groups to eliminate machismo and sexism that lead to violence was murdered. These two deaths bring the total to six hate crimes that occurred between December 2017 and December 2018.
According to a report by Colombia Diversa, 109 LGBTI people were murdered in the country in 2017, of which 41 cases were due to prejudice and homophobia.
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