Gisela, the trans woman stabbed in Santiago del Estero, has died.

Gisela Corvalán was stabbed. She spent almost three months in the hospital and died today in Santiago del Estero.

November 13, 2019

By Rosario Marina

News updated on November 13, 23:20

Gisela Corvalán was a 47-year-old trans woman who cared for the sick and elderly, and one of the 86 residents of Los Miranda, a town in Santiago del Estero. She was stabbed in her home on August 19, 2019. She bled for 12 hours and spent almost three months in the hospital. This afternoon she died at the Ramón Carrillo Hospital in Santiago del Estero.

By Rosario Marina

Almost three months ago, in the early hours of Monday, August 19, Gisela was at home when three people appeared. According to what she managed to tell her sister, and which was later reported by the media in Santiago del Estero, they tried to rob her, demanding valuables. They ultimately only took a backpack with money and nothing else, but before doing so, they stabbed her in the abdomen. Gisela went twelve hours without medical attention until she was taken first to the nearest hospital and then to the Dr. Ramón Carrillo Regional Hospital. She had lost a lot of blood.

Very close to where Gisela lived, in another town, lives a man, the grandson of a commissioner (the local authority). He is in jail, charged with “serious bodily harm.” Following her death, the charges will be changed.

Her ID was in the backpack that was stolen. Her siblings filed a police report for the theft, including her birth certificate. They spoke with prosecutor Marina Deroy in Termas de Río Hondo, but weeks passed and they heard nothing more.

“The boy who stabbed her is in custody. But nobody was doing anything. She didn’t have a lawyer. We offered her one, and now Cintia Cravero is handling her case,” Luisa Paz, coordinator of ATTTA (Association of Transvestites, Transsexuals and Transgender People of Argentina) in Santiago del Estero , explained to Presentes

“Justice must have a swift response”

“We believe it’s important to make visible the violence suffered by the trans community in the country, to raise awareness of the reality our trans sisters endure, and to ask the relevant authorities to expedite the legal processes. The justice system must respond more quickly to Gisela’s situation, to what she is going through, and to what her family is experiencing because they have a trans sister who had to face the stigma and discrimination of this violent act,” said Luisa Paz, while Gisela was still in a coma.

Gisela's story recently circulated on Facebook after a post by trans activist Alma Fernández. The post highlights that Gisela narrowly escaped the fate of Lucía Barrera, known as "La Loba" (The Wolf), a 37-year-old trans activist in the LGBTIQ+ community in Paraná, Entre Ríos province, who was found murdered in her home in July 2019.

“We made contact with Gisela’s family on Friday, November 8. We are going to present ourselves as plaintiffs,” explained Cravero, lawyer for the organization Di.Va.S (Diversidad Valiente Santiagueña).

Los Miranda, the town where Gisela was stabbed, is located in the department of Termas de Río Hondo. El Sauzal is also in the same department. The detainee is the grandson of the commissioner of El Sauzal, a town with fewer than 300 inhabitants.

For now, what the lawyer knows is that at the time of the incident there were three people with Gisela, that the aggressor is in custody, and that a woman testified providing an alibi for the main suspect.

Transphobic hate crime

“Apparently, he has a history of stabbing someone,” the lawyer said. She added, “It’s clearly a hate crime, because they took her purse when they could have taken other belongings.”

While representing the family in the case, the lawyer is searching for a trans woman who visited Gisela in the hospital before she was admitted to intensive care and was able to speak with her. “Gisela apparently told her some details about the situation because she left very shaken, crying,” Cravero explained.

The family, consisting of eight siblings, decided to travel from their respective provinces—Tucumán and Santa Fe—to be with her. “As of last night, she remains in critical condition. Grave,” Liliana, one of her sisters, wrote to Presentes . She didn't want to say any more. Grief and despair completely overwhelm her.

In a statement, ATTTA explained that Gisela was initially admitted to intermediate care, but there she contracted a hospital-acquired infection that proved intractable, leading to a coma. “Gisela had a lawyer, but he never did anything in the nearly three months since she was stabbed,” the organization stated.

Prosecutor Melisa Deroy confirmed to Presentes that one person is in custody. “The Public Prosecutor's Office initially charged him with attempted homicide. The judge changed the charge to aggravated assault. The investigation then took a turn with new statements from the sister and is still ongoing,” the prosecutor explained. She also mentioned conflicting accounts and inconsistencies in witness testimonies, but declined to elaborate further.

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