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By Pilar Salazar, from Guatemala City

José Roberto Díaz was 18 years old, a young activist with Working Together for Huehuetenango , a hairstylist, and originally from San Miguel Petapa, a municipality in the department of Guatemala. Since 2014, he had lived in an area known as a "red zone" (due to its violence), near the Zaculeu Archaeological Park in the department of Huehuetenango, 261 km from the capital city.

His neighbors found him dead in an alley and alerted the police. He was found on the morning of March 25th, at 11:20 a.m. He was lying in a grassy area behind some corrugated metal sheds in Zone 4 of that town. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office and the National Civil Police, the presumed cause of José's death was stoning.

José was tortured and branded on the abdomen with a sharp weapon. His assailants left homophobic messages written there: “faggot, queer, and queer.” He also had the number 18 branded on his face, the symbol of a gang that operates throughout Central America.

We fear for our lives

José was a member of the grassroots community group “Working Together for Huehuetenango.” One of his colleagues in the organization agreed to speak with Presentes but asked to remain anonymous. “We have suffered a lot. We know there are people who condemn homosexuality. There is a moralistic and religious society that is watching us. They are marking us, seeing who the leaders of the group are, in order to send that symbolic message, as they did with the marks they inflicted on Josecito.”

The organization's website has already received threats. "That this is wrong, that it's not from God, that we don't respect morality. We fear for our lives. We fear that they will harm our bodies, or our families, for being visible people. We want to protect ourselves, so that the same thing doesn't happen to us. We are afraid."

The group issued a statement demanding that authorities find those responsible. They also called for an end to hate speech through their social media channels. "We thank each of the organizations for their support and expressions of solidarity for the loss of not just one person, but a friend and fellow member of our organization. We call on society to stop promoting hate speech with phrases of any kind, because these are killing our colleagues, friends, brothers, cousins, and children."

They also called on the media to condemn certain coverage and demanded "that they be transparent and truthful."

[Central America: Alert over forums to “prevent homosexuality”]]

The victim's family had reported his disappearance to that agency last Sunday. His relatives said that " since José won a gay beauty pageant, he began receiving death threats."

[READ MORE: 2018: Guatemala on alert and in debt to LGBTI+ rights]

Organizations and civil society groups expressed their rejection of what they consider a wave of violence. According to the National Diversity Network, there have already been five murders this year against members of the LGBT community .

Criminalization of LGBT people

On April 26, 2017, Bill 5272, "Protection of Life and Family"—introduced by Representatives Aníbal Rojas Espino of Visión con Valores and Christian Boussinot of TODOS— seeks to criminalize the LGBT+ community and prohibit the dissemination of any information about sexual diversity in educational institutions. Its entry into the second debate before the full Congress is currently suspended.

[#Guatemala Alert over a law against the rights of women and LGBTI people]]

Congresswoman Sandra Morán, an open member of the LGBT community and sponsor of the "Breakthrough Crimes" bill, commented on the incident on her social media: "I regret this type of news, as well as any act of violence against any person. Violence motivated by homophobic hate is rendered invisible by society and the authorities. I insist on the need to criminalize these offenses. I am deeply sorry and offer my solidarity to the family and the communities."

[READ MORE: #Guatemala The congresswoman fighting alone for LGBT rights ]