By Paula Rosales SAN SALVADOR – Police in El Salvador have arrested three officers from their force on suspicion of participating in the kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Camila Díaz, a trans woman, in January 2019. Camila Díaz, 29, was found on Thursday, January 31, with numerous injuries and was taken to Rosales National Hospital, where she died three days later from blunt force trauma, according to the forensic report obtained by Presentes.

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According to the investigation, Camila allegedly assaulted a security guard at a police clinic near the location where she worked as a sex worker, prompting officers to request backup from the police emergency system. Minutes later, police took Camila into custody, and she reappeared an hour later, bruised and unconscious, on a deserted road on the outskirts of the capital.

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There were two hypotheses about the incident. One was that Camila had been harassed by other sex workers with whom she shared a space on one of the capital's main thoroughfares, an area teeming with bars, nightclubs, and auto parts stores. The other hypothesis, based on testimony from Camila's own coworkers, indicated that the young woman had been beaten by the police and found several kilometers from where she usually offered her services.

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“Now I’m even more afraid, because you can’t trust the police. I hope that justice will finally be served, and I hope it sets a precedent because I think that for the first time, justice would be done for a trans woman,” Virginia Flores, Camila’s friend, told Presentes. According to the ASPIDH Arcoiris Trans Association, 68 trans women have been murdered between 2016 and 2019. Official statistics indicate that in 2018, El Salvador registered a homicide rate of 50.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world. “What I long for most is that justice will be done and that I will hear that they will be convicted and that they won’t be released,” Virginia said.