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Briyit Michelle Alas, a 21-year-old transgender woman, was murdered on Thursday, January 16, in one of the municipalities with the highest rates of violence in El Salvador. According to the police report, she was shot at least five times in different parts of her body and then thrown into a ravine in Ciudad Delgado, about eight kilometers from the center of the capital. The police referred to her using male pronouns throughout the report.

Sources consulted by Presentes said that Briyit left her house and then headed towards a park in the Salvadoran capital; there she was last seen and told some friends that she was on her way to the block where she did sex work.

[READ ALSO: Camila's last night, a trans woman persecuted by gangs and murdered by the police ]

“Since yesterday afternoon when she left, she disappeared and no one knew anything more, until now that, sadly, our colleague is dead,” a human rights defender who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons told Presentes.

The historic center of San Salvador has high rates of reports of missing persons, robberies, and murders.

Invisible to official figures

Briyit was murdered on the same day the country commemorated the 28th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Agreement that ended twelve years of armed conflict. It is the first time the state has not officially celebrated the date. President Nayib Bukele announced that day that no homicides had been reported in the Central American country.

“We can confirm that we closed Thursday, January 16, with 0 homicides nationwide,” Bukele posted on his personal Twitter account.

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“We went to the family and they just found out. In fact, they were sent a photo last night, and it wasn't until this afternoon that the mother came out to identify the body. She said that yesterday afternoon she left, some coworkers saw her in Libertad Park, and she said she was going to work, but she never arrived,” the lawyer told Presentes.

The family is of limited economic means and sought help from human rights organizations for transgender women, who indicate that access to education and employment is restricted for this population. In many cases, they join the informal economy or risk engaging in sex work on the harsh streets of San Salvador and in the main cities of the Central American country.

The Solidarity Association to Promote Human Development – ​​ASPIDH and Arcoíris Trans lamented the new transfeminicide and demanded that the State investigate this and other crimes that have not yet been brought to justice.

“We demand that the Salvadoran State investigate and prosecute those responsible for hate crimes against the LGBTI population,” they posted on their official account.

Murders of trans people have increased

From January to December 2019, eight transgender women and one gay man were murdered, according to cases registered by human rights organizations. Only the cases of Camila Díaz, allegedly murdered by police, and Anahy Miranda have gone to court.

The man accused of murdering Anahy was given a bail of ten thousand dollars to continue the process while free.

October and November 2019 were the most difficult months; in one month and three days, four crimes against the trans population of the Central American country were reported.

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.

On Saturday, November 16, Victoria Pineda was brutally murdered on a street in the Cara Sucia canton, Ahuachapán department. Rosa Granados, a 28-year-old trans activist, was murdered in her home, shot four times in the head. She lived in the Loma Larga canton, La Unión department, 182 kilometers east of San Salvador.