Enzo was a sex worker and was murdered in his hotel room: hate crime reported
Enzo Ramos Aguirre was 23 years old, a sex worker, and was murdered on Thursday, November 12.
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By Rosario Marina
Enzo Ramos Aguirre was 23 years old when he was murdered in the early hours of Thursday, November 12th, in his own bedroom in Buenos Aires. A male couple contacted him through the website "Soy tuyo" (I'm Yours), tied him up, gagged him, and left him lying there, hidden under a mattress. Hours later, his friends learned that it wasn't the first time a supposed couple had contacted young men through that website and tied them up to rob them. Enzo, who was a dancer and had turned to sex work to survive due to the pandemic, only had a cell phone and a little cash in his wallet.
The case is being processed in the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office No. 49, under the direction of prosecutor María Paula Asaro.
The CHA (Argentine Homosexual Community), AMMAR (Association of Sex Workers of Argentina), and 100% Diversity and Rights are demanding that the murders of LGBTQ+ people be recognized as hate crimes, not just homicides committed during robberies. Greta Pena, president of the latter organization, told Presentes that they submitted a written request to the prosecutor's office for the intervention of the UFEM (Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Violence against Women of the Public Prosecutor's Office) to ensure that, as with femicides where the legal presumption that the motive is gender-based is applied a priori in investigations, the presumption of hate crime is applied to the murders of LGBTQ+ people.
On Thursday, Enzo was at a bar on the corner of Fitz Roy and Honduras streets in the Palermo neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the couple at midnight at the hotel where he lived. Around 1:00 a.m., Santiago, the young man who lived with him, arrived, went inside, saw that everything was in disarray, saw blood on one of the beds, and called the police.
"It wasn't improvised at all; seals were found."
“The camera shows them entering the room, and the next thing you see is them leaving at 12:20,” Daiana Mansilla told Presentes . Daiana is a friend of Enzo's, and she was one of the witnesses who entered the room with the police from the 25th precinct of Buenos Aires and saw her friend's body tied up and gagged.
“The place was a complete mess. There was clearly a struggle. There were two beds in that room because he shared it with a friend of ours. They threw everything around. It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing, because they found zip ties,” Daiana explained. She found him with his arms tied behind his back with zip ties and a t-shirt stuffed in his mouth. He had blood on his head and was covered with a mattress.
Other victims of the same men
The day before, a young man recounted being contacted by a couple who attacked him with a weapon, but he escaped because his cousin arrived just in time and the two fled. Since the modus operandi was exactly the same, using the same website, Enzo's friends asked him to come forward and give a statement so they could add it to the case. According to Daiana, he was able to identify Enzo's killers as the same people who had attacked him. Furthermore, other sex workers reported receiving calls from the same phone number.
There is also a third, identical testimony: another young man who had the same experience, but didn't come forward out of fear. On Wednesday, a pair of tall men, between 25 and 28 years old, one blond and the other dark-haired, called him in posing as clients. “ They pretended to be a couple. I opened the door, gave them water, and when we went to the room they tied me up, grabbed me by the neck, squeezed me, and demanded money. They said, ‘You've been handed over, so tell me where all the money is,’” recounted the young man, who prefers to remain anonymous.
When they entered the room, they turned up the music. One of them asked if he could give him a massage, and when his back was turned, the other hit him with the gun. “They left me tied up and covered me with a blanket. Every now and then they came and hit me,” he added, and recounted that they took many of his belongings (television, computer, cell phones, headphones, etc.) and loaded them into a car parked on the sidewalk.
The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office No. 49, headed by Prosecutor María Paula Asaro, is in charge of the case. The CHA (Argentine Homosexual Community) will request that the prosecutor involve the UFEM (Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Violence against Women of the Public Prosecutor's Office) to ensure that, as with femicides where the legal presumption that the motive is gender-based is applied a priori in investigations, the presumption of hate crime is applied to the murders of LGBTIQ+ people.
Support from organizations, march and family's request
“From AMMAR, the Sex Workers Union of Argentina, we demand justice for the murder of Enzo, a fellow sex worker from the Microcentro area of Buenos Aires, who was the victim of a robbery and subsequent murder. This is not the first crime committed against a sex worker since the quarantine began, but rather one of the many that have occurred over the past few months,” says the statement published by the Association of Sex Workers of Argentina.
#LGBTIQ people be investigated, applying the protocols for crimes against gender and sexual orientation. STOP THE HATE, JUSTICE FOR ENZO,” posted on its social media accounts.
The organization 100% Diversity and Rights stated: “These types of crimes send a disciplining message to the entire LGBTI+ population.” The characteristics present at the crime scene, the context in which it occurred, and the victim's sexual identity all underscore the importance of ensuring the appropriate perspective from the outset of the investigation. Therefore, this request calls for the immediate intervention of the UFEM (Specialized Unit for Gender Violence)
The Argentine LGBT+ Federation also demanded an investigation into Enzo's murder. "The perpetrators of these types of crimes, which Ammar reports have become increasingly common in the city in recent months, choose their victims because of the vulnerability created by the clandestine nature of sex work and the stigma imposed on our community and sex workers," they explained in their statement .
The organizations and their friends are calling for a march to demand justice for Enzo's murder. It will take place on Wednesday at 12:30 pm in Plaza Congreso. Later that day at 9 pm, there will be a candlelight vigil at the crime scene, Esmeralda 933, Buenos Aires.
Furthermore, since the prosecutor's office told them that the body could not be transported to Corrientes, friends are raising money so the family can come and say goodbye. They are doing so through the account in the name of Gabriel Hernán Aguirre, CBU 00700771-30004072542058.
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