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News updated 14/12/2021

SALTA, Argentina . Roberto "Tito" Costilla, a 27-year-old Latin dancer and dance teacher, is hospitalized at San Bernardo Hospital in the city of Salta after suffering a broken leg in a homophobic attack. Members of a neighboring family in the Docente Sur neighborhood assaulted him yesterday with a blunt object, hurling insults at him because of his sexual orientation.

The young man's family filed a criminal complaint yesterday at the police station in the Docente neighborhood. The Salta Public Prosecutor's Office reported that Prosecutor Horacio Córdoba Mazuranic is handling the case. Regarding the progress of the investigation, they only indicated that "various measures have already been taken to clarify the facts."

Two arrested

On Tuesday, December 14, the Salta Judiciary reported that "following a raid, requested yesterday by Criminal Prosecutor's Office 3 and ordered by Judge Ignacio Colombo of Guarantee Court 2, a father and son were arrested in the afternoon in connection with a complaint of a homophobic attack." The detainees are provisionally charged with aggravated assault motivated by hatred of sexual orientation.

“I had the impression they were waiting for me,” Tito said. He recounted that they took him by surprise because “I hadn’t seen them,” only feeling the blows from behind as he arrived home. The victim said he tried to defend himself and felt “a huge impact on his legs” that fractured his tibia and fibula in his right leg. “My leg broke immediately and I fell,” and at that moment he was able to identify “the person who attacked me; he wasn’t alone.” But because of the pain from the fracture, which almost caused him to faint, he couldn’t see the other people, the same source reported. This entire sequence of blows occurred amidst all kinds of homophobic insults. 

One of the attackers was identified by Costilla as Fabrizio, an 18-year-old. He also pointed to Fabrizio's father and mother as the ones who then attacked his own parents when they came to his aid. Both Tito and his father say that the young man has been suffering constant attacks from this family because of his sexual orientation. 

What happened

“I thought he was going to kill me. Once he broke me, saw me on the floor, and kept hitting me, I said, ‘He’s going to kill me,’” Costilla recounted from his hospital room. His father also made public statements, saying that while he and his wife were being attacked, his main concern was that they wouldn’t reach his son again: he believed they were going to kill him. 

The victim said that when the attacker saw the fracture, “he kind of slowed down a bit.” He then took the opportunity to call his father. “When he came out, I saw that they were already attacking him with a stick, and my mom was attacking him with a stick too.” 

Costilla indicated that the orthopedic surgeon who treated him at the hospital informed him that the fracture was caused by a blunt object, either the stick he saw or a piece of metal. Tito believes that the person who struck him and broke his leg could have been Fabrizio's father, because he saw him attack his parents with a stick. "Lying on the ground, unable to defend my parents, I started screaming for help," he said. Neighbors came out and helped them. 

These acts of hatred must never be allowed again.

Costilla is a renowned Latin dancer, specializing in bachata, a style in which he has won three national titles and a South American runner-up title. The orthopedic surgeon gave him “a lot of hope but also said it will be painful and lengthy, approximately six months of recovery and therapy. I have to have surgery and have a nail put in” his tibia. “It’s a serious fracture but with good rehabilitation,” he summarized. 

According to the account the victim gave to Presentes, the attack took place around 7 a.m. It happened just meters from her house, as she was returning from a birthday party at a friend's house in the same neighborhood. 

Her friends are calling on other friends, classmates, colleagues, and students to join a sit-in with banners in front of the attackers' house. "May these acts of hate never happen again," they declared.

Many reports of violence, no response

The Costilla family has lived in this neighborhood for 17 years, and they have known their attackers since then. Tito recalls receiving insults from that very moment. They filed their first complaint in 2004.

In these 17 years, they filed between seven and ten complaints. They never received a response from the Judiciary or the Public Prosecutor's Office of Salta. “It always involved insults about my sexual orientation; in fact, his sister insults me even more. Luckily, we've kept all the complaints. We have them from the first one, filed in 2004, to the last one, which was filed this past Sunday.” 

This woman hasn't lived in the neighborhood for a year, but Tito Costilla recalled that "she's always been extremely homophobic. She'd see me on the street and insult me—'fucking shit, fucking faggot'—she'd spit on me, or if not, she'd push me. She even threatened me with a knife." He reported her to the courthouse that time, but there was no response from any state agencies. 

Meanwhile, members of this family insulted him wherever they saw him. “You have no idea what high school was like for me.” Costilla recalled that when he went downtown with his classmates, as is the custom in Salta, every time he “ran into them it was torture.” He would hide when he saw them coming, but sometimes they would catch him by surprise and he would suffer the humiliation of their insults, “because you’re very vulnerable when you’re a teenager.” “They put me through horrible things.” 

Despite this, she never wanted to make this persecution public until now. “I thought something could be done, that the violence would stop. (But) clearly not, the violence only increased.” 

“Actually, this is a situation that has been going on for many years because of the kind of people we have as neighbors, a very troubled, very violent family. They have always shown that violence toward the neighbors as well. I have already filed many complaints, and so have the neighbors. They have called 911 constantly when we hear this kind of violence, which is practically every week and more than once a week, especially with my son.” And “always because of his sexual orientation,” Tito’s father confirmed. 

Cross-complaints and attacks on a trans family member

Through the press office of the Salta Public Prosecutor's Office, Prosecutor Mazuranic confirmed that "there are cross-complaints between the parties." Costilla recounted that one of the complaints filed by the aggressor family was also in 2004, against him, who was ten years old at the time, and other children from the neighborhood, because they had been playing on the sidewalk in front of the neighboring house. 

According to Costilla, the aggressors do not have a good relationship with the neighbors in general, although the mistreatment is more intense with Tito's family, because they are neighbors who live next door, because of his sexual orientation "and because I have a trans aunt." 

Costilla recounted that once her trans aunt parked her car in front of her neighbors' house, and they reacted by throwing stones at her. Then they keyed her car, beat her, and insulted her because of her gender identity. On another occasion, they verbally assaulted and tried to hit her older sister, also for parking her car on the street. 

They are calling for measures to protect LGBT rights.

The Salta branch of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI) contacted Tito Costilla this morning to offer their support. They issued a statement expressing their “deep condemnation and concern” regarding the attack suffered by the young man.

“We understand that this is not an isolated incident, but rather a systematic practice of hatred that LGBTQ+ groups experience and suffer on a daily basis ” stated INADI. They also denounced “the negligence on the part of the provincial police and the judicial system. On more than one occasion, they have received complaints from the professor, without taking any action.”

The national agency publicly called for “appropriate actions to be taken to guarantee protection and punishment for these abhorrent acts.” It also warned that it is “ urgent to implement measures to guarantee access to justice and dignified treatment in police stations , ensuring the protection of the LGBTQ+ community against these hate crimes.”

“Salta is a very backward province, especially at night, depending on where you go,” they experience similar situations, like being denied entry to nightclubs. “They see you’re gay and they don’t want to let you in,” they make excuses, Tito explained. Also, “when you’re walking down the street, they yell things at you or try to hit you.” Verbal violence “is an everyday occurrence,” he said.