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This Saturday at 3 a.m., Wanda Soraya Tananta Paima, a Peruvian trans woman, was shot in the chest at the corner of Diagonal 73 and 64 in the city of La Plata. According to other trans women who were in the area, a man was looking for drugs and, when he couldn't find any, shot her: "Since we don't sell drugs, he left angry and a little while later he came back and shot Soraya," they said. 

When officers from the Ninth Police Station in La Plata arrived at the scene, it was 3:50 a.m. At that time, several people explained to them that minutes earlier a taxi had taken Soraya to the Ricardo Gutiérrez Hospital, and that she was unconscious and had a gunshot wound. 

The police then went to the hospital, where the doctor told them that Soraya had died, and that when she arrived she had a gunshot wound to the chest. Her coworkers told the officers that they saw three men in a gray car, and that shots were fired from inside. The La Plata Homicide Division (DDI) is investigating. 

“She arrived dead, she had been shot in the chest. Resuscitation efforts were performed, but there wasn't much more that could be done. [At the hospital] they spoke with relatives who were there,” explained representatives from the Hospital Directorate of the Ministry of Health of the province of Buenos Aires Presentes

Presentes also contacted prosecutor Virginia Bravo, head of UFI 7 of the La Plata Judicial Department, who explained that the case was still very recent since only a little over 10 hours had passed since the event, but clarified that she was in communication with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and with the Ministry of Women, Gender Policies, and Sexual Diversity of the province of Buenos Aires to give the case special treatment.

"We are furious and tired"

Various organizations called for a gathering today at 3:00 p.m. at the Prosecutor's Office, located on 7th Street between 56th and 57th Streets, under the slogan "Stop Transfemicides-Travesticides," to demand justice for Soraya. "We are furious and tired of having our lives taken from us, of attempts to banish us from public spaces, of being prevented from working, of being harassed, disappeared, and killed simply for existing and resisting," explained the La Plata-based organization Venganza Afectiva in a statement.

Last September, Soraya was shot. A few days later, she posted a photo that read, “I was born to be free, not murdered,” and recounted what had happened to her. She was already recovering: “I was shot a week ago, friend, but thank God I’m already recovering.”

This is not the first hate crime to occur in that area of ​​La Plata. At the end of January last year, Roberta Carabajal, a 45-year-old Peruvian trans woman, was death at the intersection of 1st and 62nd streets. After the attack, her friends took her to San Martín Hospital, where she died hours later.

The organization Ammar La Plata, a union of sex workers, shared a statement today: “We denounce the institutional violence suffered by our colleagues. After the attack, three of them took Soraya in a taxi to the Gutiérrez Hospital in La Plata, where the police arrested them without saying a word.”

OTRANS ARGENTINA denounced and condemned the murder of their colleague and also denounced Mayor Julio Garro for the lack of public policies in the city, stating that he “has shown indifference to the problems faced by our community since the beginning of his term.” They further demanded that the case be investigated with a gender perspective and that the prosecutor on duty, Virginia Bravo (UFI 7), take action.