They denounce the illegal detention of a trans woman in Honduras
The woman was physically and psychologically tortured. The police also threatened human rights activists.
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SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras. A transgender woman was illegally detained and psychologically tortured for 10 hours by several police officers at the Armenta police station in San Pedro Sula, northern Honduras. The officers also threatened LGBTI+ human rights defenders.
“I already have your names,” threatened a police officer named Herrera, according to the testimony of human rights defenders Osman Lara and Javier Carrington for Presentes . The two, who are also members of the LGBTIQ+ Committee of the Sula Valley, went to the police station to demand the release of the trans woman arrested in the Guamilito neighborhood, in downtown San Pedro Sula, last Friday while she was working as a sex worker.
That night, the officers demanded money from the trans woman in exchange for not arresting her. When she refused, the police took her into custody at the Armenta police station, northwest of San Pedro Sula. The station is located in a remote and isolated area at the end of a dark road.
Violation of rights
On the way to the police station, the arrested trans woman suffered violence at the hands of members of the Honduran National Police. She was denied her basic rights, arbitrarily detained, and held in a cell without the right to communicate with her lawyers or friends. This is detailed in the complaint filed by the LGBTIQ+ Committee of the Sula Valley.
Immediately after receiving the complaint of unjustified arrest, Javier Carrington, Osman Lara, other members of the Committee and Governor Alexa Solórzano of the Cortés department, -where the municipality and city of San Pedro Sula are located-, arrived at the Armenta post to demand that the arrested trans woman be released.
The human rights defenders remained outside the police station for 10 hours, as the officers closed the premises "because this place is unsafe," they argued. Lara confronted them about why they had left the Committee members outside, despite the dangerous location.
Under police threat
“I already have your names,” an officer named Herrera told Osman Lara and Javier Carrington, members of the Sula Valley LGBTIQ+ Committee, at the Armenta police station. “This is the part I like the most,” Officer Herrera added when, after 10 hours of detention, the young woman was released from the holding cell.
Herrera also told the defenders that he had seen the video they filmed during those hours, which was published by Reportar sin Miedo (Report Without Fear). “Is that a threat?” I asked him,” Osman Lara recounted in an interview with Presentes . “Take it however you want,” the officer replied, “be careful,” I told them, Lara added in his narration of the events that took place on the night of Friday the 26th.
Arbitrary procedure
Despite the obvious threat from the police officer, Lara, Carrington and the other members of the LGBTIQ+ Committee of the Sula Valley held a vigil at the Armenta police station, in the northwest of San Pedro Sula.
In addition to the Committee, several trans women arrived at the Armenta police station, but the police did not allow them to communicate with the detainee.
The officers claimed that they had arrested the trans woman in the Guamilito neighborhood, in downtown San Pedro Sula, because she was “committing immoral acts in public.”
"Our colleague was arbitrarily locked up in the men's cell because she refused to pay the extortion money that the National Police were demanding from her, mentioning that sex work is prohibited," Osman Lara stated.
Throughout Friday night, the officers provided no information about the detainee. "They wouldn't give us any answers about her," Lara recounted.
The violence doesn't stop.
The unjustified arrest on Friday the 26th adds to an already long list of mistreatment and murders against the diverse population in Honduras.
In 2022, 29 LGBTI+ people have been murdered in the country, according to the Violent Deaths Observatory of the Cattrachas Lesbian Network.
From 2009 to today, 432 cases have been reported, but only 97 crimes have been prosecuted and only 39 cases have resulted in convictions.
On May 9, 2022, Honduran President Xiomara Castro apologized on behalf of the state for the crime against trans activist Vicky Hernández, who was murdered during the 2009 coup. However, to this day, the main reparations measures mandated by the court ruling have not yet been implemented, including changing the names of trans people on their national identity documents.
“Internal displacement and its impact on LGBTIQ+ populations and communities must continue to be identified, documented, and recognized through political will in order to address this rarely discussed reality. From Mexico, we also demand an end to arbitrary detentions, extortion, and persecution of trans women in Honduras. The Secretary of Security must rise to the occasion within the framework of human rights,” said Raul Carporal of Casa Frida on Twitter.
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