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SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, Argentina. “My fight doesn’t end here.” That’s what Laura Moreira said as she left the Criminal Courts, where the trial for the transfemicide of her sister, Cynthia Moreira . Her words were received by the trans organizations and community who were waiting in the rain for the court’s decision.

Minutes earlier, the Fourth Chamber of the Criminal Court, made up of judges Wendy Kassar and María Fernanda Bahler and Judge Emilio Páez de la Torre, acquitted Ramón Soria, the only person charged with the crime, after the prosecution and the plaintiff withdrew the accusation.

During her arguments, prosecutor Marta Jerez de Rivadeneira, who maintained a passive attitude throughout the trial without questioning the witnesses, argued that it was "a waste of time," since there was no evidence of Soria's guilt.

Prosecutor Arnoldo Suasnabar's investigation began with the possibility of a drug trafficking connection. With the intervention of the federal court, nine raids were carried out on different properties belonging to the Díaz brothers, identified as those responsible for Cynthia's murder. Soria's house was also raided, where incriminating evidence was found. Suasnabar abruptly shifted his focus to Soria's guilt and requested a trial, which took place four years later.

The evidence was inconsistent, and the prosecution dismissed other individuals who could have been investigated. Jerez de Rivadeneira requested Soria's acquittal. He asked that the case be returned to the Homicide Division, headed by Mariano Fernández, for further investigation.

An exposed vulnerability

For their part, the plaintiffs, represented by lawyer Carlos Garmendia, agreed with the prosecutor that there was insufficient evidence. They also pointed out that the debate had highlighted the vulnerable situation of the trans and travesti community in Tucumán. 

“Several witnesses from the trans community have testified in this courtroom in recent days. Their accounts reveal a context of vulnerability. And, in particular, the vulnerability Cynthia faced, despite having an advantage that the rest of the community generally lacks: the support of her family. Even so, she fell into prostitution, and Cynthia's ultimate fate is linked to that vulnerability and to the place society assigns to trans people: a place of absolute exclusion,” stated Garmendia, who was also a plaintiff in the trial for the transfemicide of Alejandra la Pawer Benitez.

The Moreira family undertook an enormous effort to contribute information to the investigation and find answers about what happened to Cynthia. They organized countless marches, showed solidarity with the families of other victims, supported their struggles, and printed banners, t-shirts, and posters. During the trial, her three sisters, her brother, and her father were present at every hearing. Her mother died in early 2022 without ever having seen justice for her daughter's murder.

Cynthia was last seen in Parque 9 de Julio, the same park where Ayelén Gómez had been murdered months earlier. At night, that part of the city transforms into a red-light district. All the witnesses who testified in court know the codes for surviving police violence, drug-related violence, and the violence of the night. 

Investigation

According to the complaint, the line of investigation that should be pursued further is the one linked to a possible drug theft from drug traffickers in which Cynthia and Maia Amaya would have been involved.

Amaya was a witness at the trial and the last person to see Cynthia alive. In her closing argument, Garmendia also requested that Amaya be investigated for perjury. On three occasions, she was brought face-to-face with other trans women who claimed to have seen her with Cynthia in the park and at the corner of Crisóstomo and Moreno streets. She always maintained the same position: she said she last saw Cynthia on February 14th around 11 p.m. when she left her house. 

“What happened to the investigation? Prosecutor Suasnabar prematurely halted it. He probably wanted to get rid of the case and send it to trial. But the facts clearly show that what happened to Cynthia was the work of more than one person,” the lawyer stated in his closing arguments. Cynthia was missing for seven days. Her body was found in an abandoned house in Barrio Sur. It was dismembered and burned, and placed in three garbage bags.

While the prosecution alleges Soria is linked to the Díaz Clan, they believe he is not the primary perpetrator of the crime. “We have sufficient evidence to return this case to the Prosecutor's Office for Final Investigations so that, with all the information presented in this hearing, the investigation can continue and those responsible for the atrocious murder of Cynthia Moreira can be identified. The Díaz Clan is not exempt from investigation.”

“I will continue to seek justice for my sister”

Laura Moreira is Cynthia's sister. She began the search in 2018 when the young woman went missing and continues to lead the fight for justice.

“My fight doesn’t end here. The brutal murder of my sister will not go unpunished. Four years ago, the Public Prosecutor’s Office gave more importance to the theft of a purse belonging to a prosecutor’s niece than to the investigation of a dismembered body in an abandoned house. That shows you the disgrace that the justice system brought upon us. The disgrace that the Seventh Prosecutor’s Office brought upon us, with Prosecutor Arnoldo Suasnábar in charge of the case.”

The woman emphasized the justice system's poor handling of the investigation. "The prosecutor knew we had no evidence against Soria and took the case to trial knowing what happened today would happen," she added. "If he had thoroughly investigated this brutal murder, Soria wouldn't be here today, or perhaps he would be, as an accessory after the fact. But today we have the Díaz Clan here, convicted of a hate crime against my sister."

She also referred to Cynthia's friend, against whom a case will be opened in the same prosecutor's office for perjury. "Maia Amaya lied here in court, in front of the judges, in front of everyone who was there. She insists that she wasn't with her when there are more than six people who saw them together that night and early morning," Laura said.

“Maia Amaya, you will pay for hiding the truth and not revealing the name and location where you left Cynthia. And I won't stop until Orqueta and Leo Díaz pay. This doesn't end here, it continues. I will continue blocking streets, I will continue seeking justice for my sister. I am not afraid.”

Research without perspective

Cynthia's case cannot be read as an isolated incident. It tells a collective story situated within a historical framework of social, patriarchal, and institutional violence, as well as structural vulnerability, that affects the trans community.

It is not new that the Public Prosecutor's Office of Tucumán lacks a gender perspective to investigate crimes against the transvestite and trans community.

This negligence was highlighted in the trial for the transfemicide of Ayelén Gómez, which ended with a nine-year sentence through a plea bargain. It was also highlighted in the case of Alejandra La Pawer Benítez, where the only defendant, Ricardo Puenzo, was acquitted. This latter ruling was overturned , and a new trial will be held in October.

The human rights organization Andhes is preparing an Investigation Protocol for Transfemicides, Travesticides and Transhomicides.

“A gender perspective aims for the full realization of the principle of equality and non-discrimination. Its incorporation into judicial processes is fundamental to achieving effective intervention that respects rights and ensures a proper analysis of the context. Therefore, a new justice system is essential, one that addresses these forms of discrimination and violence as structural and systematic phenomena, and not as isolated incidents,” the organization states.

*This article was originally published in La Nota Tucumán and is reproduced through a partnership with Agencia Presentes.