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By Veronica Stewart

Luz Aimé Díaz, a transgender migrant woman accused and imprisoned in 2018 for a crime she did not commit, was acquitted today by Court No. 8 of the City of Buenos Aires. The judge ordered the removal of the electronic monitoring device that had been placed on her as part of her house arrest.

Prosecutor María Luz Castany followed the line of defense attorney Luciana Sánchez and asked for acquittal, highlighting the structural violence suffered by the transvestite-trans community.

In July 2018, Luz was charged with “aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.” After providing sexual services to two men in Palermo, Luz was accused two months later of tying up and assaulting a 50-year-old LGBT+ man in the next room. Despite the lack of any evidence linking her to the crime beyond her presence at the scene, she served eight months of pretrial detention in the Ezeiza prison before being granted house arrest.

Castañy stated that even if Luz had agreed to go to an apartment with two strangers, that decision was consistent with Luz's circumstances and the level of exposure she faced due to her work as a prostitute. He concluded that "it is highly unlikely that she was an accomplice in the acts for which she is charged" and that, therefore, the Court should acquit her.

The prosecutor not only detailed the forensic evidence presented during the trial, but also made extensive reference to the anthropological report submitted during the second hearing, which described the living conditions of the trans population. Furthermore, she highlighted international reports on the importance of the right to identity, including gender identity and the right to respect for it.

For her part, defense attorney Luciana Sánchez expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to engage in a debate through careful consideration of the evidence and, first and foremost, for having presented it. Sánchez added that she hopes "that this case will also lead to the application and expansion of these standards, as has been happening in jurisprudence that is incorporating a gender perspective." She also expressed her appreciation "for the opportunity to establish a precedent that clearly demonstrates that these vulnerabilities truly impede the prosecution of certain individuals and that the trans identity of trans women, sex workers, or those in prostitution should not be associated with the commission of crimes."

“Prosecuted for being a transvestite and a migrant”

Luz was born in Salta. At age 13, she began prostituting herself, which exposed her to extreme violence. She suffered three transphobic attacks that left her completely blind in one eye. She only has partial vision in her right eye and suffers from recurring cataracts. These attacks went unpunished. 

[READ ALSO: Hotel Gondolín: an alternative housing option for transvestites and trans people in Buenos Aires ]

In 2017, at just 20 years old, Luz left her native Salta and arrived in Buenos Aires. There, she began studying at the Mocha Celis Trans Popular High School with the intention of finding new jobs. “She also started the process of obtaining her disability certificate at the Pedro Lagleyze Ophthalmological Institute,” explains Alcalde. “Imagine her living in an apartment, at night, in the dark, with a severe vision problem; she could never see what was happening inside other rooms of the apartment.”

For this reason, and as it corresponds to her by subsection C of article 32 of the law on the execution of the sentence of deprivation of liberty (law 24.660) which orders to grant the benefit in case the stay in the prison of the disabled person is inadequate due to his condition and/or receives an undignified, inhuman or cruel treatment, Luz was granted house arrest. 

“She is being judged and prosecuted for being a trans woman, for having a visual impairment, and for being an internal migrant. What happened to Luz happened to all of us,” Bertolini explains. The structural violence of the judicial system is not only institutional violence, but also gender-based violence. During the investigation, the prosecutor did what was necessary to portray Luz as the main culprit, but the people who acted and brought Luz there were not taken into consideration. That is only possible because trans women and transgender people are considered criminals.” 

[READ ALSO: Mocha Celis, the first transvestite-trans Popular High School in Latin America ]

The lack of equity, the vulnerability of the trans population, stigmatization, and the stigma associated with prostitution are some of the characteristics Bertolini mentions that allow the legal system to condemn trans people as criminals. “There is something called the crime of existential being, which is a crime because of your very existence. In this case, existing as transvestites and trans people is considered a crime. Given the lack of understanding of gender identities, and the fact that the State does not have a record of the multiple identities that emerge demanding equal rights, the constitutional guarantee of the presumption of innocence is lost. For Luz, this principle does not exist because being a transvestite catapults her to legal and social condemnation.”