By Airam Fernández, from Santiago, Chile 

Photos: Presentes Archive

[News updated on January 14]

Chilean courts will prosecute five women who occupied the Quillota Prosecutor's Office in June 2019 to demand swift action and answers in the investigation into the murder of Nicole Saavedra, a young lesbian woman. They took this action as a form of protest, three years after a crime that, at the time, remained unsolved and with no progress in the investigation. María Bahamondes, Nicole's cousin, is one of those charged in connection with the occupation. The first hearing in their trial was scheduled for Thursday, January 14.

But on January 14, shortly before it was scheduled to begin, the hearing to try the five women who had occupied the Quillota Prosecutor's Office was suspended.
The court proposed resuming the hearing on February 23 to explore an alternative resolution between the prosecution and the defense.

To oral trial

From the beginning, María Bahamondes handled the legal proceedings and spoke with the press and authorities to bring the case to light. Today, she is being criminalized for demanding justice, and along with lesbian-feminist activists Jael Bosquez, Caterina Muñoz, Emperatriz Godoy, and Karen Vergara, she will face trial for aggravated damage and public disorder. The accused face a sentence of more than three years in prison and a fine of 11 UTM per month.

“My colleagues are nervous and very anxious. But I’m calm because I know we didn’t do anything wrong, and because I already experienced the worst when Nicole was killed,” Bahamondes tells Presentes. But she’s also outraged: “If we hadn’t protested like that, the case would still be the same, with no progress. They’re persecuting us unjustly, and that’s what makes me angriest.”

On the day of the occupation, a multitude of women marched through the streets of Quillota to commemorate the three-year anniversary of Nicole's murder. The 24-year-old lesbian was killed. Her battered body, bearing signs of torture, was found lifeless on June 25, 2016, near the Los Aromos reservoir, two hours from Santiago.

The march was authorized but ended with police repression. In the middle of the demonstration, the five women decided to enter the local Prosecutor's Office building. Outside, another group showed their support with shouts, slogans, and banners alluding to this case, which has already had four prosecutors and some delayed responses. Four months after the occupation, the Valparaíso Prosecutor's Office identified Víctor Pulgar as the main suspect, a bus driver who was already serving a sentence for raping two minors.

They are asking for acquittal for the five. 

The unjust persecution and criminalization of Bahamondes, Bosquez, Muñoz, Godoy, and Vergara mobilized the country's feminists. This led to an open letter signed by 129 feminist and lesbian feminist organizations and more than 400 local activists , demanding three specific things from the Chilean government: the dismissal of the case against the five women; a focus on the judicial system's investigation of cases of lesbofemicide, such as that of Nicole Saavedra and María Pía , which occurred in 2008 under similar circumstances; and guarantees of justice, truth, reparations, and non-repetition.

During the last few days, they have been stirring things up on social media and also on the streets, amid the restrictions due to the pandemic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ6E-SQpo-C/

Bahamondes demands that the Public Prosecutor's Office and the courts "dedicate time and resources to solving crimes against women and girls, and not to persecuting those who fight against impunity." She also calls for swift sentencing of Pulgar, who is currently incarcerated in the Valparaíso prison, serving two sentences of 10 and 8 years for rape and sexual abuse of two minors. However, his sentence for Nicole's murder has not yet been determined, even though a year has passed since he was charged with rape with homicide, kidnapping, and robbery. 

The first hearing: online

Due to the health emergency, the preliminary hearing scheduled for January 14th was to be held online. However, it was postponed to February 23rd at 10:00 AM . Bahamondes doesn't know how long it might be delayed. “It could be weeks, months. We don't know what might happen, but we are very confident that we did nothing wrong,” she says. They will be represented by Silvana del Valle, a lawyer with the Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women and the Saavedra Bahamondes family's legal representative, as well as two other lawyers from the law firm AML Defensa de Mujeres (AML Women's Defense).