Marbella, a 28-year-old trans woman, has died: she was hospitalized after suffering an attack
Organizations are asking international bodies for help to stop violence against trans people, which worsened during the pandemic.
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By Pilar Salazar, from Guatemala
Mafer "Marbella" Santos, a 28-year-old transgender woman who had been shot multiple times on March 4, died on April 16 after spending more than a month hospitalized at the Amatitlán National Hospital. Her death was due to complications during surgery to remove a bullet, which had further compromised her already fragile health. Two other people died in the attack targeting Marbella.
Mónica, a close friend of Mafer's, told this publication that Marbella worked as a manager at the "Siboney" bar in Nueva Concepción, the town where she lived, in the Department of Escuintla (147 kilometers from Guatemala City). The victim was originally from the municipality of San Andrés Iztapa, in the Department of Chimaltenango (54 kilometers from Guatemala City). Mafer maintained contact with her family and made time each month to travel to San Andrés Iztapa to see her.
He had received threats
Her friend said that Mafer had received death threats after an altercation at the "Gardenias" nightclub in Nueva Concepción, Escuintla.
Marbella's remains were laid to rest in the San Andrés Iztapa Municipal Cemetery. Due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, only close family members attended the funeral.
Five trans women murdered in Guatemala
READ MORE: Young gay man shot in Guatemala: he was helping investigate another hate crime
In the first four months of the year, at least five transgender people have been murdered in Guatemala, according to documentation compiled by this media outlet and the monitoring of public complaints identified by civil society organizations. The Observatory for Violent Deaths of the National Diversity Network also issued an alert regarding this death, confirming that three transgender women have been violently killed during the pandemic.
Community-based trans women's organizations (Redmmutrans, Redtrans-GT, Otrans Reinas de la Noche) in a coalition issued a statement denouncing the violence experienced by trans women amid this pandemic.
They publicly denounced: “The State of Guatemala remains determined to deny our existence. Under the crisis unleashed by COVID-19, this fact is magnified since, as impoverished and extremely vulnerable people, we only remember the moment of dying, and not necessarily as a consequence of coronavirus.”
Covid and human rights: a call to international organizations
In the same statement, the organizations called on international human rights bodies to intervene and protect the trans population, the hardest hit by this crisis. “ We ask international bodies to stand with us and protect our sacred right to life, so repeatedly violated in this land of the quetzal .”
READ MORE: Trans woman stoned to death in Guatemala: she was 35 years old
This week, the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, through the Office of the Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity, pledged to request public information and monitor cases of violence against the LGBT population in the country this year.
“We regret that in the midst of the crisis unleashed by Covid-19, the violence against us not only does not stop but is made invisible, leaving the crimes in total impunity,” they expressed on social media.
READ MORE: Transfemicide in Guatemala: Wicha was shaved and mutilated
READ MORE: Two LGBT activists murdered in Guatemala
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