For the first time, the Salvadoran justice system has convicted a transfemicide

Three police officers were sentenced to 20 years for the murder of Camila Díaz Córdova in January 2019.

July 28, 2020

By Paula Rosales, from El Salvador

A court in El Salvador today issued an unprecedented ruling against three police officers accused of detaining, beating, and throwing Camila Díaz Córdova, a 29-year-old trans woman, from a moving patrol car.

Through a deductive process, the trial judge determined that state security agents Luis Alfredo Avelar, Carlos Valentín Rosales Carpio, and Jaime Geovany Mendoza Rivas participated in the crime, resulting in a twenty-year sentence for aggravated homicide. However, the court did not recognize the crime as a hate crime based on gender identity.

“For us at ASPIDH, it’s a bittersweet experience. It’s sweet because at least there’s finally been a conviction for the death of a trans woman, and bitter because they didn’t include the hate crime aggravating factor, which leaves a bad taste in our mouths since we didn’t get the 50-year sentence we were hoping for. Obviously, these 20 years can be appealed and reduced by half,” Mónica Linares, director of the Solidarity Association to Promote Human Development – ASPIDH Arcoíris Trans, told Presentes.

According to the magistrate, the officers subdued and handcuffed Camila in the back of the patrol car, did not take her to a place where the police logbook established, abandoned her in a lonely and dangerous place, and ruled out that she had been run over by a car, as the defense maintained.

“The defendants had involvement in the incident, because the only ones who injured the victim were the officers,” the judge said.

Most cases considered hate crimes motivated by gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression have been dismissed in the country's courts. Only three of the 600 murders of transgender women that have occurred since 1992 have been prosecuted: Camila Díaz, Anahy Miranda, and Tita Andrade.

The ruling in favor of Camila Díaz is the first with a conviction in the Central American country.

The case initially involved three crimes: deprivation of liberty, aggravated homicide motivated by hatred based on gender identity, orientation, and expression. But only one charge was upheld.

“As the Prosecutor's Office, we are satisfied because we believe that justice was done for Camila. The judge decided to sentence each defendant to 20 years in prison for the crime of aggravated homicide,” the case prosecutor, Gisela Meléndez, told the press.

A civil resolution is still pending, after the prosecution requested $1,000 in damages for Díaz's family for each officer prosecuted.

“I know that justice was done, because they caught these people from the moment they murdered my son, they are prosecuting them, and if it hadn't been that way, this process wouldn't have gotten to where it is now, that's why I think that justice has been done,” Camila's mother, Edith Córdova, told Presentes.

Camila was deported from the United States in 2017 after being denied humanitarian asylum for lacking ties to the northern country; she emigrated due to death threats from the neighborhood gang, one of the bloodiest in Central America.

“My greatest feeling is that from the moment they told me 'your son is not here, your son disappeared' from the moment he was murdered, my greatest feeling is that my son will never be with me again, no one will erase him from my mind, from my heart, he will always be there,” the mother added.

The last night of Camina

According to the prosecution's investigation, in the early morning of January 31, 2019, the convicted police officers arrived to attend to an emergency on a street north of the capital, where they had a report that Díaz was causing disturbances in the public way, so she was arrested and taken away in a patrol car.

During the journey, it is suspected, based on the evidence, that the trans woman was beaten by the officers and then thrown onto a road, where she was rescued alive minutes later by an ambulance. Camila Díaz Córdova died in a hospital on February 3, 2019.

“I am truly surprised, I think it was something I expected, this is one of the best pieces of news I have had after so much has happened, so much waiting, so much struggle, so much anxiety, all of this was very long, but now I have received one of the best pieces of news,” Virginia Flores, Camila's friend, told Presentes.

The accused

Officer Luis Alfredo Avelar, 35, studied religious studies at the Catholic University of the West. He immigrated to the United States illegally and was deported on April 26, 2019. He resigned from the police force in 2008 and rejoined in 2012. His record shows that he has committed minor offenses: absences during work hours and desertion.

The second defendant is Officer Carlos Valentín Rosales Carpio, 37 years old. He was the highest-ranking officer in the group that responded to the emergency call. On the entrance exam, he received a score of four out of ten points in the human rights section.

The third defendant is Jaime Geovany Mendoza Rivas, 28 years old. His record shows no disciplinary infractions, and he received an award for police excellence.

“We do not share the judge’s opinion because it was based on an accusation, as he himself stated, on a subjective accusation, since we believe that it was not established that they actually hit him,” lawyer José Cabezas, one of the officers’ defense attorneys, told the press.

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