Trans woman detained without conviction becomes paraplegic and reports torture
She walked into a prison in the province of Buenos Aires and is now bedridden, paraplegic, in a hospital in La Plata.
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By Luciana Bertoia
Mónica Mego, a 36-year-old Peruvian trans woman, walked into a prison in the province of Buenos Aires and today lies paraplegic in a hospital bed in La Plata. She has been detained without conviction for almost a year, accused of drug dealing. After months of pain and demands for treatment from the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service (SPB), she was left paralyzed and without sphincter control. She filed a complaint for torture with the SPB—which reports to the provincial Ministry of Justice headed by María Eugenia Vidal—but her case has not moved forward. At the same time, prison officials filed a lawsuit against a defense attorney for having visited Mónica, allegedly accompanied by a journalist. This investigation is moving at a rapid pace and has already passed through the hands of three prosecutors. Various organizations say this is a case of torture that the provincial government wants to prevent from being investigated, which prompted the intervention of the Buenos Aires Supreme Court.
Mónica's complaint was filed with the La Plata Attorney General's Office on July 5 of this year. It was presented by Aníbal Hnatiuk, a lawyer from the Buenos Aires Court of Cassation. In a few pages, Mónica described how her life had fallen apart in less than a year, since she was deprived of her liberty. Her kidney pain began in October of last year, while she was detained at the Olmos Jail. The SPB's treatment consisted of giving her ibuprofen. She began noticing a lump growing and also how the prison guards were breaking their promise to take her to an outpatient hospital for treatment.
READ MORE: Transgender drug defendants asked to be acquitted due to her vulnerability
When she was transferred to Unit 32 in Florencio Varela, Mónica could barely walk. Her fellow inmates went on a hunger strike to demand that the Public Health Service (SPB) treat her. The SPB's response was to place her in a "buzón" (a punishment cell) and leave her for hours without care. On May 21, a fellow inmate who worked with the health department tried to help her, but Mónica collapsed. "My body completely died," she wrote in her complaint.
The next day, she underwent surgery at San Martín Hospital in La Plata. The lump she felt was an epidural abscess from untreated tuberculosis . When she left the operating room, the doctors told her she would never walk again: she would have to live the rest of her life in diapers and a catheter.
Days later, she was taken back to Olmos. They left her in a bed without rotating her, and bedsores developed, leaving her exposed to multiple infections. This was additional torture for someone living with other chronic conditions.
Prison, a device for dying
“What happened to Mónica is something we've been warning about since 2017, when four of our fellow prisoners ,” says Claudia Vásquez Haro, president of Otrans.
Pamela Macedo Panduro died on January 1 while detained at Penitentiary Unit No. 32 in Florencia Varela, Province of Buenos Aires.
The organization is about to release a federal investigation conducted with support from the International Trans Fund, which details the suffering of trans people in prison. "The report will reveal how detention conditions, mistreatment, torture, and death have worsened during these four years of Macri's administration," it explains. Ninety-five percent of those interviewed reported having suffered mistreatment, verbal or physical violence from security forces at least once. In prisons, there is a triple discrimination , explains Vásquez Haro: being transvestite, migrant, and poor.
They demand justice for the death of a trans woman detained in Florencio Varela.
According to the latest CPM report, as of December of last year, 94 trans women were detained in Buenos Aires prisons. Most of them are housed in Unit 32 in Florencio Varela. The rest are divided between Unit 44 in Batán and Unit 2 in Sierra Chica.
READ MORE: Historic ruling: Trans man placed under house arrest to "avoid cruel treatment"
The transgender prison population grew by 36 percent between 2017 and 2018—fueled by hardline rhetoric. As of last year, 86 percent of transgender people in prison were there awaiting trial. That is, without sentencing or review of their sentence. As was the case with Mónica.
Justice demands justice
On Friday, the president of the Buenos Aires Supreme Court, Eduardo de Lázzari, signed a resolution directly targeting Attorney General Julio Conte Grand. On the one hand, he demanded that he inform him what had been done with the complaint filed by Mónica from the hospital . On the other, he urged all authorities involved in the case not to hinder the actions of human rights defenders.
Mario Coriolano, a defense attorney for the Supreme Court, went to visit her while she was bedridden in Olmos. He did so at the request of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CNPT), which considered the lack of attention, mockery, and harassment suffered by Mónica could be classified as a case of torture. Coriolano was ultimately denounced by the head of the SPB, Xavier Areses, for allegedly allowing a journalist to enter the prison—which would be practically a feat, given that the SPB itself controls entry and exit from prisons.
“ Mónica's case is a testament to the brutality and stereotypes of the justice system: from a segment of the prosecutors, the judiciary, and the SPB ,” Coriolano tells Presentes . “From a gender perspective, there are intersecting vulnerabilities. She's a trans woman, Peruvian, and that led to her being falsely implicated in a drug case.”
De Lázzari's ruling came after submissions from the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM), the CNPT, and the Episcopal Vicar of Solidarity of the Diocese of Quilmes were submitted to the provincial court.
The CPM filed two habeas corpus petitions for Mónica's situation and requested precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which it extended to the entire trans community deprived of their liberty in the province of Buenos Aires. It's likely that these petitions will be repeated in the coming weeks, and new organizations may even join in supporting the claim.
[ALSO READ: Historic ruling: There will be an exclusive ward for detained trans and transvestite women]
Mónica is currently under house arrest at San Juan de Dios Hospital in La Plata, but the organizations following her case have been demanding that she be transferred to El Dique Hospital in Ensenada, as it is the ideal medical center for treating chronic illnesses.
"It's in our best interest to ensure these situations don't happen again. The State's response to Mónica must be reparative," demands Ignacio Di Giano, director of the CPM's Complaints Reception Program. "This girl walked in, and at best, she'll leave in a wheelchair .
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