By Rosario Marina

Photos: courtesy of Otrans Argentina

What is the situation of transvestite and trans people in Argentine prisons? How many are there, who are they, and how do they live? A comprehensive study by the organization OTRANS Argentina delved into federal and Buenos Aires province prisons to generate real data and compile a document proving "the systemic violence to which transvestite and trans bodies are subjected" while incarcerated. 

Pamela Macedo Panduro , an Otrans activist and migrant, died on January 1, 2017, while detained in Penal Unit No. 32 in Florencia Varela, province of Buenos Aires.

Angie Velázquez Ramírez and Damaris Becerra Jurado also died in Buenos Aires prisons. Brandi Bardales Sangama died in the San Martín Hospital in La Plata, after the Buenos Aires police raided her home. This report was initiated after their deaths.

READ MORE: Justice demanded for the death of a trans woman detained in Florencio Varela

A pioneering report

 "Our investigation stems from specific events related to the increase in arbitrary and fabricated arrests and the trigger that led to the deaths of four women in 2017, detained in the city of La Plata," explains Claudia Vázquez Haro, president of OTRANS and director of the project, in the report. 

The report is the first and only of its kind. No trans organization has previously surveyed the detention conditions of the transvestite-trans community in the country. 

A total of 87 prison visits were made in the province of Buenos Aires and at the federal level between January and July 2019. The research was funded by the International Trans Fund.

How many are there and where are they?

The report recorded the incarceration status of 94 trans women in Unit 44 in Batán, Unit 2 in Sierra Chica, and Unit 32 in Florencio Varela (all in Buenos Aires province). Two of the latter house trans people with cisgender men. At the Federal Penitentiary Service, the investigation registered 44 transvestite and trans women in the Ezeiza Prison Unit. Two-thirds of the trans women in prison are between 25 and 40 years old .

Until 2015, the Ministry of Justice did not include transvestite trans people in its statistics. It was only in that year, three years after the passage of the Gender Identity Law, that the State began to know how many trans people were in prison. 

According to the report, although there has been progress in Argentina, "the prison system has fallen into a theoretical gap, which translates into institutional practices that fail to provide an adequate response." 

No criminal record and no conviction

82% of the transvestite and trans people interviewed for this report in Buenos Aires prisons : this was the first time they had set foot in a detention unit. Among those who had been incarcerated, less than half had received a sentence.

At the federal level, the situation is similar: more than 50% of those interviewed had never been incarcerated before or committed any crime. 

The report identified an increase in the number of imprisoned migrant women. “ The majority of transvestite and trans women deprived of their liberty are migrants. A large percentage of them are under investigation, awaiting a final sentence or release,” the report explains.

Migrants : increasingly

According to data from the Ministry of Justice, in 2015, 52% of transvestites and trans women incarcerated in the country's prisons were Argentinian. The following year, they represented 59%. The second largest group was Peruvian women, representing 39% of transvestite and transvestite prisoners. 

However, according to the data collected by the research, three years later the proportion has not been sustained: in the province, the Argentine nationality group is a smaller percentage than the migrant group, at a proportion of 30% and 70% respectively. 

Today, in the province of Buenos Aires, 70% of the women interviewed who are deprived of their liberty are foreigners: the majority from Peru, others from Ecuador. At the federal level, 55% are foreigners . Their nationalities are the same, and the Dominican Republic is one of them.

The arbitrary detentions of trans and transvestite migrants, who arrive in Argentina fleeing violence and transphobia in their countries of origin, are only one aspect of the discrimination they suffer at the hands of the justice system. This year, a judge in La Plata, Juan José Ruiz, was suspended for aggravating the sentence of a trans person for being a migrant, violating the right to equal treatment and the principle of non-discrimination. The measure was taken by the provincial jury of judges and officials.

READ MORE: Judge who increased sentence for trans woman being a migrant suspended

Whether Argentinian or migrant, the proponents of this report focused on the few visits almost all of them receive from their families. In Sierra Chica, there is a trans girl who hasn't received any visits in three years. 

"Not even their consulates care for migrants. The number of migrants detained raised many questions for me, as did the age of my colleagues," Claudia Vázquez Haro told Presentes .

"Conditions are observed that contribute to the deterioration of health: the housing situation exacerbates the problems, and the lack of adequate nutrition and medication are mitigated," the report explains.

"Prisons are human warehouses"

Claudia, the project director, was struck by the inhumane detention conditions. How does this worsen the health of those living with chronic illnesses? 

Data indicate that 73% of transvestites and trans people in Buenos Aires prisons suffer from some type of illness. One of the most common infections is HIV/AIDS. At the federal level, 55% have some illness, with HIV/AIDS being the most common.

"The report is an important symbolic and political asset in terms of being able to systematize the situation faced by transvestites and transvestites," Vázquez Haro told Presentes . The ultimate goal, she explained, is for the data to serve not only to demand that the State implement public policies for the trans and transvestite community, but also to report to international organizations how the human rights of the trans and transvestite community are violated in prisons in Argentina.

“Prisons are human warehouses where the lives of trans and transvestite comrades are ultimately discarded,” she concluded. 

Examples abound. One of them: Mónica Mego, a 36-year-old Peruvian trans woman, walked into a prison in the province of Buenos Aires and ended up bedridden, paraplegic, in a hospital in La Plata. She had been detained without conviction for almost a year, accused of drug dealing.

READ MORE: Transgender woman detained without conviction becomes paraplegic and reports torture

Contrary to what usually happens in the court system, this year, prosecutor Franco Picardi—head of the Federal Prosecutor's Office No. 5—issued rulings requesting that trans women accused (in two separate cases) of small-scale drug dealing be released and avoid jail time. In both rulings, the prosecutor considered that these were survivors "in a state of need for forgiveness and lacking access to basic rights."

Accordingly, the National Criminal and Federal Correctional Court No. 7, presided over by Sebastián Casanello, decided to dismiss the charges against five of them. This was a historic decision by the Argentine justice system, which acknowledged the "need to excuse" the defendants' actions and recognized the lack of rights faced by the transvestite and transgender community, both inside and outside Argentine prisons.   

READ MORE: Five transgender people accused of drug dealing were acquitted.