Hate crime in Valparaíso: a trans woman was murdered
The body of Brenda Plaza Vallejos, a 42-year-old trans woman, was found in Cerro Polanco with a stab wound in the abdomen and several blows to the head.
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By Airam Fernández
Brenda Plaza Vallejos, a 42-year-old transgender woman, was murdered in the city of Valparaíso. Her body was found by residents of the Polanco hill neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, April 8, and the autopsy results are still pending.
Before the police arrived at the scene where Brenda's body was found—on Fontecilla Street in the Polanco neighborhood—activists and community leaders approached the area and recognized her. According to activists in Valparaíso who spoke with Presentes, the woman was well-known and loved in the area, even though she had only recently moved to the city. “She lived in Iquique (northern Chile), but she would occasionally visit her mother. She had been here for two months,” said Marcelo Aguilar, National Director of Acciongay, one of the organizations supporting the victim's family.
Another of the first people to arrive at the scene was Zuliana Araya, a transgender councilwoman from Valparaíso and president of the Afrodita Union. “I never imagined it could be Brenda. I know her family and all of this hurts me deeply,” she said, adding that Brenda was a sex worker.
Amid the legal proceedings and while awaiting the necessary documents to claim the body, Gloria Vallejos, Brenda's mother, spoke briefly with Presentes. “I want justice. I want those who did this to be imprisoned, and I want them to tell us the truth about what happened. That's all I ask,” she said over the phone from the Valparaíso Regional Prosecutor's Office.
[READ ALSO: 2018: Impunity in attacks against the LGBTI community in Chile]
“Not even the police respect us: they treated her like a man.”
Araya wants an investigation into whether it was a hate crime. “We demand a thorough investigation, that this crime not go unpunished, and that the authorities not turn a blind eye, as they always do in cases like this,” the councilwoman said.
READ ALSO #Chile Two attacks on gays in one day: boiling water and stones
She also lamented the treatment by the Carabineros (Chilean police) and the way they informed the press about what happened: Major Ariel Valenzuela, head of the Third Police Station North of Valparaíso, referred to “a male person dressed as a woman.” “Until the very end, they treated Brenda as a man. So we can’t expect the bad guys to stop killing us, much less can we expect respect from others, if the police themselves don’t respect us,” Araya complained.
At the family's request, Brenda's body will be transferred to the city of Iquique this Wednesday. Her funeral will be held there. As of the time of this report, there were no leads regarding the perpetrator(s) of the murder, which is being investigated by the Homicide Brigade of the PDI (Chilean Investigative Police).
Record number of attacks against LGBT people in 2018
In 2018, 698 cases of violence and abuse based on sexual orientation or gender identity were reported in Chile. Compared to 2017, this represents a 44% increase. It is the highest figure recorded in the last 17 years and accounts for 22% of the 3,137 total violations registered during that period. This information comes from the 17th Annual Report on Human Rights of Sexual and Gender Diversity, prepared by the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) .
For the third time in 17 years, the trans population accumulated the highest number of hit-and-runs with 39% of the total, corresponding to 273 cases, the highest known to date.
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