Another trans woman murdered in El Salvador: 3 transfemicides in less than a month

Victoria Pineda was a 44-year-old trans woman. She was brutally murdered on Saturday, November 16, in El Salvador.

JUSTICE FOR FEMICIDES AND TRANSGENDER MURDER

November 19, 2019

By Paula Rosales, from San Salvador

The murder of Victoria Pineda, a 44-year-old trans woman, and the brutality of the attack on her body, has raised alarms in El Salvador. In less than a month, three murders of trans people have been reported.

Victoria was brutally murdered in the early hours of Saturday, November 16, on a street in the Cara Sucia canton, in the coastal municipality of Francisco Menéndez, department of Ahuachapán, 113 kilometers west of San Salvador.

The lifeless body was found abandoned in the middle of the street. It was discovered naked, with its head covered by logs and a car tire. Police sources indicated that its face was disfigured by blows from stones.

LGBTI rights organizations are deeply concerned about the increase in violence. Between January and November 2019, seven murders of transgender people were reported.

According to Bianka Rodríguez, director of the organization Communicating and Empowering Trans Women – COMCAVIS TRANS, the murders were committed due to hatred of the victims' gender identity and expression.

“Victoria’s body was found completely naked, with her hands open in a symbolic way, like a sign of crucifixion. She had a tire with logs in her hands; the tire is meant to represent the crown of thorns,” Bianka told Presentes, drawing a comparison to Christ on the cross.

Presentes requested information from the Cara Sucia canton police, but they stated they were not authorized to give details.

Anahy Miranda Rivas, 27, was murdered in the early hours of Sunday, October 27, on a busy avenue in San Salvador. On November 9, Jade Camila Díaz, a trans activist, was found dead in the department of Morazán, in northeastern El Salvador.

Days later, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed its "repudiation and deep dismay" at the murder. "Jade, along with the organization COMCAVIS Trans, tirelessly defended the rights of LGBTI people and recently participated in consultations for the development of El Salvador's national chapter of the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework (MIRPS)," the agency reported.

The UNHCR called attention to “conducting the necessary investigations and preventing alleged hate crimes from going unpunished. This is in accordance with the commitments presented by the Salvadoran government during the recent MIRPS meeting in Mexico , and in line with the commitments made in the Mexico City Declaration ,” adopted days earlier.

Government in silence

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has not spoken out about these crimes against the LGBTI population, despite pressure on social media, one of the tools the president uses to inform about his government.

Bukele, who took office on June 1, eliminated five State Secretariats just hours after starting his term, including the Secretariat of Social Inclusion, which served vulnerable and LGBTI populations.

Within the Secretariat of Social Inclusion, the first Directorate of Sexual Diversity was established to promote the eradication of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the public administration. Bukele's decision to transfer this directorate to the Ministry of Culture generated widespread rejection from the LGBTI community.

“For us, this is alarming. We don’t know the motives behind these murders. It’s terrible that none of the state institutions have issued any statements. These murders are invisible to the state because it hasn’t taken any stance,” Bianka stated.

In 2018, the country recorded a homicide rate of 50.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world.

The Minister of Culture, Suecy Callejas, posted a message on her Twitter account about violence in general, but without mentioning the LGBTI community. “We condemn social violence, especially that which attacks the most vulnerable populations. We are working to clarify the causes of the recent homicides,” the minister stated on her personal account.

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