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By Paula Rosales

On the night of Friday, July 10, Scarleth Cambell Cáceres, a 22-year-old trans woman and activist, was with six of her colleagues who make a living as sex workers in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They were on an avenue in the La Plazuela neighborhood when, according to witnesses, a vehicle approached and fired several shots at the group.

Scarleth, a renowned human rights defender, was shot three times in the back. “When they heard the shots, they thought it was fireworks, and suddenly they saw Scarleth fall, saying, ‘Help me!’” Donny Reyes, from the LGBT Association Arcoíris de Honduras , where Scarleth was an activist and secretary, told Presentes.

The women who were with her at the time of the attack said they called 911 for 25 minutes, but it took a long time for the police to answer. Scarlett died en route to the University Hospital. “She died in transit,” Reyes confirmed.

“Scarleth was a young woman full of light, joy, and sweetness, and her life has been taken from her. We believe it was because she embraced her identity as a trans person, because of her identity, because she took on an organizational role within a space like Muñecas de Arcoíris (Rainbow Dolls), where she served as secretary, volunteer, and activist. She was the one who alerted others to dangerous situations. We repudiate and condemn this act. We will not be silent. We demand justice,” emphasized her colleague Donny Reyes. 

During the attack, one more person was also injured, but at the time of publication, no details could be obtained about their health status. 

At least 12 hate crimes in Honduras this year

According to the Observatory of Violent Deaths of the LGBTI Community in Honduras, the country recorded at least a dozen crimes against LGBTI people in 2020.

Between January and July, six gay men, one lesbian, and five trans women , according to monitoring by the Cattrachas Lesbian Network.

“2020 was a classic year. At the beginning, between January and February, six people from the LGBTI community were murdered in Honduras, using the same methods and techniques that have always been used and that have been recorded in the observatory,” Indyra Mendoza, director of the Cattrachas organization, told Presentes.

According to Cattrachas' analysis, no murders against the LGBTI population were reported in ten weeks, possibly because he believes that in Honduras they focused on "another type of discrimination" caused by the paranoia of the Coronavirus.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned Scarlett's murder and demanded that the Honduran State clarify the facts.

“I heard the news, but it wasn’t in my area. It seems it was here by the small plaza, by the little tree, but it was in that area that the death of the gay young man . I don’t have any further information; I don’t know the details,” a police officer from the Tegucigalpa station told Presentes.

Media violence

The police are not the only ones who continue to violate Scarleth's gender identity. Print media and television also did so when reporting her death, referring to her by the name of the sex assigned at birth, ignoring her trans identity by mistaking it for a sexual orientation, and revealing her former name. The organization she belonged to has demanded a public retraction.

Organizations report approximately 317 hate crimes in the last ten years, 92 percent of which go unpunished. Of these, 180 victims were gay men, 37 were lesbians, and 100 were transgender people.