By Juliana Quintana

Paola Benítez Ramírez, a 24-year-old trans woman, was the victim of a hate crime on Monday, June 25, in her apartment, located next to Casa Diversa, a shelter for LGBT victims of violence (Avenida del Agrónomo and Cabo Verde, in the San Roque neighborhood) in the city of San Lorenzo, 14 kilometers from Asunción. Prosecutor Mirtha Rivas of Unit 3 in San Lorenzo, in charge of the investigation, charged Miguel Cabral Cardozo with aggravated assault and requested pretrial detention, but the judge granted him house arrest. 

“I’m at the beginning of the process. I’m going to summon the witnesses and review the background information. I need a forensic expert to tell me the extent of the injuries he suffered in order to move forward with the investigation. The accused declined to make a statement; only his personal information was taken with his defense attorney,” prosecutor Mirtha Rivas told Presentes.

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Around 6 p.m., 19-year-old Cabral Cardozo arrived at the apartment Paola shares with three other women and received the sexual service they had previously arranged. According to information obtained by Presentes, Cabral refused to pay the agreed-upon amount because, in his words, he thought he was going to be “with a woman.” He took advantage of the fact that Paola was getting dressed to hit her on the head several times, first with a chair, then with a glass, and injured her eye with his knee. 

“The idea of ​​mistaking us for women is common among straight men (supposedly, in Guarani). Because they ask for one thing and then leave demanding more without paying what's due. He got her number from a trans classifieds site, called her, they made an appointment, and he came. He wanted a service, Paola provided it, he paid her, then he wanted another type of service, and Paola told him that would cost more money. That's when this man's animalistic reaction came out,” says Tami Tossi, Paola's friend. 

"Stay away because I'm going to kill him."

When Cabral began attacking her, Paola cried for help, and the first to hear the screams was Liz Paola, who was in the next room. Liz ran downstairs to warn the others who were at Casa Diversa at the time. They all tried to get into the room, banging and shouting through the door, but Cabral wouldn't open it. 

Trans activist Yren Rotela was live-streaming on Facebook when she heard the screams. “I ran and climbed onto a sink that faces the window and saw her on the floor. He looked at me and said, 'Get away because I'm going to kill her,'” Rotela recounts. 

She managed to see him on the bed and Paola in a corner on the floor. He had something in his hand that she couldn't identify at the time, but she thought it was a knife. According to the residents, Cabral was pacing in and out of the room, seemingly nervous, and when he started threatening the others, Yren filmed him with one of the girls' cell phones. In the video, the man can be seen saying that he wanted to "reach an agreement." 

“It made me relive all the difficult moments I went through.”

“I was desperate and had the corridor gate closed because I was afraid he would come out. I swear that when I looked at him, I also saw Blas Enrique Amarilla the day he tried to kill me; it made me relive all those difficult moments I went through,” says the co-founder of Panambi and director of Casa Diversa. 

According to her account, her roommate sent the video to several WhatsApp groups, where it quickly went viral. In the video, Yren spoke to the aggressor, trying to calm him down and pleading with him to let Paola out of the room: "If you don't let her out, that girl is going to die ." Only then did Cabral drag her out of the apartment by her hair, throw her into the hallway, and lock himself back inside.

Together, they approached Paola to help her up, but she collapsed on the stairs. They spoke to her, but she didn't respond; they called 911 seven times. They had to go out into the street to ask for help until they saw a police officer on a motorcycle drive by. The officer went inside and asked that no one touch the victim because her head was bleeding, and then he went to get the volunteer firefighters. 

Upon arrival, they assisted Paola and took her to the San Lorenzo General Hospital. Officers from the 1st Central Police Station made several attempts to break into the apartment where Cabral was holed up. Both Yren and Tami confirmed that when he finally came out, he was wearing different, clean clothes, had showered, and changed his face mask. The police arrested him and took him to the station. Later, Paola's friends noticed her wallet was missing and found her cell phone on private property. 

While Tami and Paola went to the hospital, Yren filed a police report that same night. The medical report indicates that Paola suffered a head injury from being hit by the chair and cuts from the glass. “It was awful. I think this guy came prepared; he brought a backpack, hurt our friend, and by the time the police arrived, he had already changed his clothes. If we hadn't been there, things would have been very different,” says Tami. The next day, at eight in the morning, Yren and Paola went to give their statements.

A wave of media violence  

Miguel Cabral confessed to the local press that he had hit Paola with a chair. According to his account, he was at Paola's home waiting for a bus when he was invited into an apartment by a woman. Once inside, he realized she was a transgender person. The article refers to Paola by her birth name. 

In Paraguay, the 61 cases of murders of transgender people that went uninvestigated and unpunished since the fall of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship continue to resonate. Last year, in a landmark trial, the Luque Sentencing Court found Blas Enrique Amarilla guilty of the murder of Romina Vargas and sentenced him to the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. It was the first conviction in the country for the murder of a transgender person. However, laws against all forms of discrimination and gender identity remain outstanding debts to democracy.

The Paraguayan television program El Repasador ridiculed the attempted murder of Paola, a trans woman, in its June 16th edition. Through violent comments from the panelists regarding the gender identity of trans people, and using music and sound effects to frame the video Yren recorded when Paola was found after being tortured, the program dedicated an entire segment to revictimizing and mocking the case.

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“From the trans community, we regret that the mass media continues with its negative labels and pejorative and offensive epithets, exposing us to laughter, mockery, jokes, and insults,” Yren wrote on her Facebook wall, expressing her concern about the statements of supposed professionals in areas such as social and legal sciences, who validate discrimination and transgress the ethical norms of journalism.

Anti-rights television with neo-Nazi guests 

This is not the first time El Repasador has targeted the LGBT community: the program is known for its anti-rights stance and a history of discrimination against feminist groups, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other LGBTQ+ groups. Last year, it even invited Sara Winter , a neo-Nazi politician, as a panelist. Winter was arrested on Monday in Brazil for participating in anti-democratic demonstrations against Congress and the Supreme Court.

Law No. 5777 on comprehensive protection of women includes media violence and defines it as the “action exercised by the social media, through publications or other forms of dissemination (…) that promote the objectification, submission or exploitation of women or that present violence against women as an acceptable behavior.”

Organizations such as Aireana , Diversxs Asunción , and Panambi expressed their condemnation of the program. Panambi, an association of transvestites, transsexuals, and transgender people, made available to the media a guide for reporting on diversity and for the human rights approach in news stories about trans people.

[READ ALSO: Paraguayan trans women marched and denounced the police and the justice system ]

 The Human Rights Committee (HRC) recommended that the Paraguayan State protect trans people against all forms of discrimination and systematically investigate cases of violence against them.

“Trans people have no safety, no space, nothing. I was terrified when he told us, ‘Get out of here or I’ll kill your friend,’ while we heard the other one moaning in pain, begging for help. I wouldn’t wish seeing a friend the way I saw Paola on anyone. I hope justice is served,” Tami recalls.

But the National Constitution is clear. Article 46 stipulates that all inhabitants of the Republic are equal in dignity and rights: “Discrimination is not permitted. The State shall remove obstacles and prevent factors that maintain or promote it.” Similarly, Article 25, regarding the right to free expression of personality, states that individuals are free to form their own identity.  

Transitar Paraguay which supports the resistance of trans, travesti, and non-binary people, is also raising funds to cover Paola's hospital expenses, treatment, and essential medications. They are accepting donations, including personal hygiene items and pain relievers. The number available for Personal money transfers is (+595)986220246.