Share

Share this

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

In an unprecedented decision, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found the State of Honduras guilty of the murder of trans activist Vicky Hernández, which occurred on the night of June 28-29 , 2009. The crime occurred exactly 12 years ago, in the midst of the curfew imposed following the coup d'état that overthrew Manuel Zelaya and established the de facto government of truck driver Roberto Micheletti. This ruling is a milestone in the history of justice in the country and for LGBTIQ+ populations in Latin America.

The case was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) following a petition filed by Cattrachas on December 23, 2012. Years later, the U.S.-based Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization joined the defense. The hearings were held virtually.

What is reported

Vicky Hernández survived on the streets of San Pedro Sula as a sex worker. She was a well-known activist for Unidad Color Rosa, a trans women's organization in that Honduran city. 

On the night of June 28, she went out into the street unaware of the curfew. That same night, Zelaya was taken from his home at gunpoint. The next morning, Vicky was found dead on a street in the Ruiz neighborhood, in northeast San Pedro Sula. In the darkness of that night, the only people moving around the city were members of the Honduran security forces. 

The autopsy—performed much later because the victim was denied that opportunity at the time due to her gender identity and HIV status—revealed that Vicky was murdered with a firearm, according to a document from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued in December 2018.

A 2010 amnesty decree protects those responsible for institutional violence. The lawsuit sought to eliminate it in order to identify the chain of command behind the murder of the Honduran trans activist .

 "It is alleged that Vicky Hernández's death occurred in two relevant contexts. On the one hand, the alleged context of violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Honduras, with a high incidence of acts committed by law enforcement, and on the other, the alleged context of the coup d'état that occurred in 2009," reads the text with which the IACHR announced the news in September 2020. 

With fear, but without backing down

The night Vicky was killed, her companions ran to escape death. But in the end, the witnesses who managed to escape were killed. “I still told Vicky, 'Run, run, run,'” one witness told Rosa, Vicky's mother. “When we turned around, we didn't see Vicky; we only heard the gunshots.”

They killed “Lisa and the other girl,” Rosa recalls. “There were no witnesses, but they assured me that the police had killed Vicky.”

“When we were at the hearing at the IACHR, I received a call from the DPI,” Rosa says, her voice breaking. DPI stands for the Honduran Police Investigation Directorate, and the call, according to Rosa, was intended to intimidate her and make her abandon her desire to seek justice at the IACHR hearings.

"I was scared because they kill people and they don't even know who [does it]. That's why I've been in a state of anxiety. I'm scared because maybe someone is suing the State and they'll want to screw [kill] them because, to them, someone's life is worthless."

But with the help of Cattrachas and the other organizations that support them, Rosa and her family have found the courage to tell their story and continue their fight for more than a decade. “They told me to fight and fight so that Vicky's death would not go unpunished,” Rosa says with a defiant look.