Historic sentence in Guatemala for the transfemicide of activist Nancy Sacul
The court imposed the aggravating circumstance of "contempt for the victim." The crime of transfemicide does not yet exist in Guatemala.
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GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala. A man was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the transphobic murder of Nancy Sacul Tut. The sentence was handed down by the Tenth Single-Judge Court, which established a 15-year sentence and added six years for "contempt of the victim."
Trans woman, indigenous and migrant
Nancy Sacul Tut was 24 years old and a Q'eqchi' trans woman originally from Chisec, Alta Verapaz (about 247 kilometers from the capital). Impoverishment forced her to migrate to the capital at the age of 14. There, she settled in a local market called "El Guarda" to earn a living selling vegetables. Her low income, coupled with triple discrimination due to her ethnicity, gender identity, and migrant status, limited her opportunities. She turned to sex work, seeking to organize with the El Trébol Trans Women Sex Workers Collective at the age of 18.
The "El Guarda" market area has always been plagued by violence, fueled by informal street vending, drug trafficking, and organized crime. Nancy's murder stems from a death threat made by phone to a member of the El Trébol trans sex worker collective in April 2022.
The harassment that did not stop
Presentes obtained her account, in which she stated that a man calling himself “Pablo Martinez” was extorting her, demanding that each member of the collective pay him around $60 a week. When she received no response, he sent her an audio message with death threats. “I don’t act alone, you’ll be hearing from me very soon,” he can be heard saying. “We’re going to kill you one by one, but we’ll start with you because you’re the leader. We already know where you live,” he tells one of the members of the collective in the audio. Together, they filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and civil society organizations.
According to testimony from a member of the collective, the situation worsened after the death threats. Bersavi Revolorio Nájera, Nancy's transphobic murderer, reappeared. He had been assaulting and extorting members of the collective for months, even breaking Nancy's teeth on one occasion. Revolorio was linked to Martínez; they had worked together as security guards at a nightclub.
The perpetrator approached Nancy while she was drinking soda and began insulting her because of her gender identity. Witnesses saw Nancy, on July 2, 2022, around 9 p.m., trying to catch her attacker after he shot her point-blank in the face. But she fell to the ground and was taken to Roosevelt Hospital where she died due to the severity of her injuries.
A landmark ruling
Presentes spoke with Diego Lima, representative of the Civil Society Platform for Documentation and Monitoring of Human Rights Violations and Violent Deaths Due to Prejudice Against the LGBTIQ+ Community in Guatemala @ObservatorioLam . He indicated that the sentence for Nancy's transphobic murderer, Bersavi Revolorio Nájera, was handed down on January 3rd in the Tenth Single-Judge Court and that it was not recognized as a transphobic femicide because the legal category does not exist in Guatemala. It was instead classified as homicide with two aggravating factors: "contempt for the victim" and "attempted escape and nighttime."
Lima mentions that this is not the first time the aggravating circumstance of "contempt for the victim" has been used to convict someone for the murder of an LGBTQ+ person. In 2021, a judge used it to convict the murderer of an elderly gay man. In Nancy's case, it was applied because the judge was sensitive to the issue. He recognized that, in a way, the murderer used contempt and certain prejudices or stereotypes when he killed Nancy. This was relevant to the length of the sentence, as Revolorio was sentenced to 21 years in prison. "A sentence never before seen for simple homicide in Guatemala," Lima notes.
Police abuses and more
Presentes had access to a document that the Collective of trans women sex workers of El Trébol delivered to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman on February 21, 2021. In that document they denounce that they were victims of abuses and physical assaults by the patrol identified with the number 14-211 of the National Civil Police.
They also recount how, for several years, they have been victims of beatings, verbal, physical, and psychological abuse in the sector where they work. This abuse of power and authority has not ceased and highlights how the police, instead of protecting them, contribute to the violence against this group.
First transfemicide of 2023
The Civil Society Platform for Documentation and Monitoring of Human Rights Violations and Violent Deaths Due to Prejudice Against the LGBTIQ+ Community in Guatemala @ObservatorioLam and the organization Otrans Reinas de la Noche @infoOtrans registered the first transfemicide of this year.
The victim was Samantha Fuentes, from Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango Department, 204 kilometers from the city. She was found dead with signs of violence in her home on January 8, according to local news reports.
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