Brutal attack on trans sex worker in San Martín: Brenda has 70% of her body burned
One person has been arrested and his colleagues are demanding that it be investigated as a hate crime.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. Brenda, a trans woman and migrant sex worker from the Buenos Aires suburb of San Martín, is hospitalized with burns covering approximately 70% of her body following an incident that is still under investigation. Activists are demanding that it be treated as a hate crime and emphasize that “sex workers are in danger” in that district. So far, one person has been arrested: Carlos Espíndola, whom local activists have identified as a pimp.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Monday, October 17, at a boarding house where the accused, Brenda, and another transgender person were staying. According to sources from the Public Prosecutor's Office who spoke to Presentes, there was a fight and a fire at the location. The fire spread to the mattress where Brenda was resting.
The investigation into the incident is being led by prosecutor Carlos Insaurralde of the San Martín Prosecutor's Office No. 3. The case is being prosecuted as attempted homicide. Carlos Espíndola was arrested in connection with this investigation.
Brenda is a 27-year-old transgender migrant woman. She arrived from Paraguay and works as a sex worker in the area of Route 8 and Márquez de San Martín. She is in an extremely vulnerable situation and was homeless. She is currently hospitalized in intensive care at the Eva Perón Hospital in San Martín with burns covering approximately 70% of her body.
Clothes burned on Route 8
“The official version says it was in a boarding house, but there is also another version that the violence started on Route 8. We actually found burned clothes and things in that area,” Guille Castro of El Teje de San Martín , a transvestite and trans care solidarity network in San Martín, told Presentes.
“ This is transphobia, it’s a hate crime,” added Paola Acevedo, coordinator and leader of El Teje de San Martín, in an interview with this agency. Regarding the accused, she said: “We chased him away; the guy tried to attack some of our friends. He and many other pimps and police officers have a problem with trans people because we are empowered and know our rights.” She further explained that “he had already threatened and assaulted her: That same night he hit a trans friend, Marimar, to get her off the street corner.”
“We are being abused by the police”
Acevedo emphasized that the situation of sex workers in the area of Route 8 and Márquez, located between the districts of San Martín and Tres de Febrero, is “critical.” Under the slogans “We are in danger” and “The State is responsible,” a group of activists, sex workers, and residents gathered at noon last Friday at that roundabout.
“There is a white-collar police force that is actually criminals who bribe, stigmatize, and criminalize our fellow sex workers. We are subjected to violence by the provincial and municipal police who use us as their personal piggy bank. This happened to other colleagues like Mónica, Marimar, Brenda, and so many more, who remain invisible,” stated the coordinator of the diversity clinic at Fleming Hospital.
“Not only do they charge us or our clients bribes, but they also intimidate, threaten, and beat us, and when any situation of violence occurs against us, they are complicit or look the other way,” says the statement from El Teje de San Martín that circulated to call for the gathering.
Invisible crimes
Regarding the violence against sex workers, Acevedo recounted that four months ago they received news of the murder of another colleague. “Mónica was a colleague who had worked in the area for over 20 years. She was abducted at the intersection of Route 8 and Márquez, the same corner where Brenda worked, and her throat was cut. We found out a month later. She was 42 years old and originally from Tres de Febrero,” she said.
“We are highlighting the sexism and hate crimes. That is what an absent state leaves us with. We want to be respected, we want the police to do their job, not come and rob us or stigmatize us,” she concluded.
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