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The search for Tehuel has reached its 11th month . On the road to trial, where the responsibilities of the two detainees linked to his disappearance, Luis A. Ramos and Oscar A. Montes, will be determined, LGBT+ organizations continue their demand for justice, insist on the ongoing search, and emphasize the need to raise awareness and address the vulnerabilities faced by the trans community, and in this case, trans men.

“We see once again that it seems our lives don’t matter. The Tehuel case had enormous visibility and a public impact , highlighting the tragedy the trans community is experiencing. But as the months went by, that massive search effort faded , becoming almost exclusively confined to LGBTQ+ organizations,” said Esteban Paulón, executive director of the LGBT+ Public Policy Institute and member of the Board of Directors of the Argentine LGBT Federation (FALGBT) .

Giovi Novello, coordinator of the Trans and Non-Binary Men's Association of Santa Fe, also addressed the waning interest in the investigation into Tehuel's disappearance. " The question we ask ourselves is whether it truly mobilized the entire community. We believe the impact was limited to the LGBTQ+ community itself, and even with a reward offered, we didn't see any progress for a long time," he stated.

He adds, “We see it in the calls for protests in the streets throughout the country; the mainstream media did not give due treatment to the case of a 20-year-old trans man from the suburbs who disappeared in a democracy while going to look for work.”

Hatred towards trans people remains intact

For her part, Nadir Cardozo, a trans leader from ATTTA CABA and Fundación Huésped , added her reflection 11 months after Tehuel's disappearance: “It is a great pain for our community, caused by the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to him or where he is.” In that sense, referring to the case, she emphasized that it highlights the hatred that trans people still suffer.

And she highlighted another fact: “ We are three months away from celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Gender Identity Law, and we still encounter hate speech and barriers to accessing our basic rights. The State must guarantee our safety and a better quality of life, as these are still outstanding issues for us.”

Along the same lines, Paulón emphasized that “all lives matter. Regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, everyone has the right to a life free from violence and a fulfilling life, and that should be a cause for all of society.”

Regarding the Tehuel case, Cardozo insisted that these situations represent a setback for the community at a national level, and "the lack of a response from the State and the government puts the group back in a vulnerable position."

For Giovi, “ the impact was seeing in Tehuel’s life the reflection of all my comrades and of an entire community that has been demanding job opportunities, the real implementation of a job quota at the national and provincial levels, and in the many municipalities where they have been approved and we are still waiting for them to be fulfilled . We are tired of waiting! In a democracy, trans people continue to disappear, continue to be killed, continue to be subjected to violence. Our lives cannot continue to wait; we need political will from all levels of government and all branches of power to overcome the sad life expectancy of 35 or 40 years that the trans community currently faces.”

#WhereIsTehuel

On March 11, 2021, Tehuel de la Torre - a 22-year-old trans man - left his home in San Vicente (Buenos Aires) heading to Alejandro Korn, where Luis Alberto Ramos - now charged with his crime - had offered him a job as a waiter.

The last photo of Tehuel shows him that day with Ramos at the home of Oscar Montes – who is also charged. The image was recovered from Montes' cell phone.

Since that day, nothing more has been heard of the young trans man . On March 13, Luciana, Tehuel's partner at the time, filed a missing person report at the San Vicente police station. “They wouldn't take my report because I was 17. When I described him to the police, one of the officers said, 'Oh, he's a trans kid.' I felt a bit discriminated against and unwelcome. Later, I went back with a neighbor. They told us we had to file the report in Alejandro Korn because that's where he disappeared. They took us there in a patrol car,” the young woman stated in one of the only statements she made to the media last year.

Three days after the report was filed , the raids and requests for testimonies from the Justice system began . Among other things, part of a jacket and Tehuel's destroyed cell phone were found at Ramos's house . Blood samples were also taken that matched those of the De la Torre family.

The investigators raided a waste separation point, a pig farm, homes of residents of Ramos and Montes, and even a small lagoon located a few meters from where the last photo was taken .

For months, Montes and Ramos refused to testify. A couple of days before their charges were formally filed, they appeared for questioning and gave statements, but the content of their testimony was not made public.

Today they are charged with “aggravated homicide motivated by hatred of gender identity.” Last November, the Prosecutor's Office considered that it had sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial, although the incorporation of some evidence and the procedural timelines indicate that the trial will take place in the second half of the year.

Let the cry not be silenced

The request from these organizations comes almost as a plea: that the demand for Tehuel's reappearance not be silenced in society and that it not be limited to a flag representing the various entities of the LGBT+ community.

“ We hope for a reform of the justice system that takes into account gender and diversity as a human right, and is sensitive to the community. In this particular case, where the charges were changed to a hate crime, we hope the justice system will impose the maximum sentence, thus setting a precedent,” Giovi Novello emphasized.

“We must continue to raise our voices to say enough to hate crimes because of our identity and demand justice for Tehuel and the thousands of comrades who are still victims of hate caused by stigma and discrimination ,” said Nadir Cardozo.

In a final message, Paulón summarized: “We have to make this a reality in society: 11 months in, we are still missing Tehuel .”

🇦🇷 #Now
📣 "We want Tehuel alive"
✊🏽 #Buenos Aires LGBT+ activists in front of the Obelisk are demanding the reappearance of #Tehuel https://t.co/ojsFhuMKI1 pic.twitter.com/nHTQQ8tyvI

— Presentes Agency (@PresentesLGBT) March 29, 2021

How to search

Last November , the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit for Violence against Women (UFEM) presented the Guidelines for the investigation of cases of disappearance of women and the LGBTIQ + .

The presentation took place within the framework of the Preparatory Sessions for the “10th International Conference on Gender Violence and Related Crimes.” These meetings were organized by the Federal Council of Criminal Policy and the Council of Attorneys General, Prosecutors, Public Defenders, and General Counsel of the Argentine Republic.

Among the recommendations they provided, the following stand out : prioritizing the urgent search for the missing person and including the hypothesis of trafficking and femicide, along with intra- and inter-institutional coordination.

The document submitted systematized the international legal framework on the matter and the content of the duty of enhanced due diligence regarding the investigation and prosecution of gender-based violence, in line with General Recommendation No. 2 of the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) on missing women and girls in the hemisphere in accordance with Arts. 7b and 8.