Mexico: First hate crime of 2022 recorded in the state of Puebla
On the afternoon of January 1st, a gay man was found murdered in his home. This is the first hate crime in Mexico.
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MEXICO. Puebla. Just hours into 2022, the first hate crime in Mexico was recorded. It was committed in a residential area of the city of Puebla , against a 61-year-old man.
Gabriela Chumacero, activist and member of the Puebla Transgender Group , stated that initially it was believed that it was a trans woman, but once the case was turned over to the State Attorney General's Office, it was confirmed that it was a gay man who was found to have some feminine objects in his possession.
He explained that the victim was an architect named Ernesto Javier Herrera, who was murdered by strangulation.
Her body was found around 1 p.m. on January 1st. A security guard at the gated community noticed the gate was open, and upon entering, they found the lifeless body, with bruises and bound.
Federal Deputy Salma Luévano Luna addressed the case in a video posted on her social media , although the initial information indicated it was a transfemicide. She demanded that the Puebla government and the Attorney General's Office locate and capture those responsible and called for an end to hate crimes.
According to Chumacero, family members have already been located and are waiting for the body to be released to them.
The case is being handled by the Specialized Unit for the LGBT Community to rule out the victim's sexual orientation as a possible motive for the murder. They are also investigating the possibility of robbery.
“I will be following up with them (the Prosecutor's Office) to find out how the investigation is progressing, to access the case file. The Specialized Prosecutor's Office already has it, and they already have the case to begin investigating,” Chumacero stated.
They are asking that hate crimes be considered
However, the activist asserted that hate crimes are frequently dismissed in Puebla and prosecuted as other offenses, such as robberies.
“For the LGBT community, when there is a hate crime, they will never consider it a hate crime. They consider it a crime of passion, a settling of scores, or something else. Since January of last year, we started with two crimes, and the prosecutors always treat it as a crime of passion,” he asserted.
This may contribute to an underreporting of hate crime figures. According to the National Observatory of Hate Crimes Against LGBT People , three murders of members of the LGBT community were recorded in Puebla in 2021 and five in 2020.
Chumacero stated that some of these crimes have been solved because activists have worked hand in hand with the specialized prosecutor's office, but many remain pending in this area.
“The Specialized Prosecutor's Office for LGBT Issues has found solutions in some crimes. They have worked on four cases that were shelved and two recent ones; there has been progress, but we need to stay on top of them,” he stated.
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