Transfeminicide in Veracruz: Denisse Cabaly was beaten to death and no one intervened
Denisse was 29 years old and well-loved in her community. She survived by working as a sex worker.
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Denisse Cerón Mendoza, a young trans woman also known as Denisse Cabaly, was beaten to death in the market area of Veracruz City. It's a secluded area, known for its crime. According to witnesses, two men savagely beat her until she lost consciousness. Denisse was 29 years old and was taken to the Veracruz High Specialty Hospital, where she died from her injuries. No one intervened. Denisse was just passing through the city and feared for her life because in 2018 she witnessed the murder of Alaska, her roommate in Tlapacoyan.
Originally from Las Libres (Puebla), she lived in Teziutlán (Puebla) since the murder of Alaska, where she worked as a sex worker and provided community services.
Activist Jazz Bustamante told Presentes that at one point Denisse went to ask her for help because she was afraid.
“She was a very attentive, helpful, and empathetic person, and I think it’s important to highlight that she asked me for help once. I summoned her to my lawyer’s office. (…) She said she was afraid because she had been one of the witnesses the prosecution brought in because she spent a lot of time with Alaska Contreras. (…) She was left feeling bad, very scared, and somewhat paranoid. If you asked her about Alaska’s murder, she would get upset because she said her killer was still free,” Bustamante said.
Denisse began traveling between Puebla, Veracruz, Xalapa and Martínez de Torre, where she had clients.
In Martínez de la Torre, she did community work with the social organization Manos Rosas, where she was very well-loved. She also participated in some meetings of trans women in Xalapa to defend their rights.
The Veracruz State Attorney General's Office did not issue any statements regarding this transfemicide or others that have occurred in the region.
Markets, a zone of transfemicides
“Her friends say they went out to eat and chatted in the afternoon, and then they lost track of her. It was at night when the events occurred, and none of the people who were in the area or passing by dared to intervene to defend her. It's very difficult for them to tell us because of that area. The market area in Abasolo is frequented by people involved in violent activities like organized crime,” Bustamante said.
But she hasn't been the only trans woman murdered there. According to Bustamante, in the last three years alone, there have been five victims of trans femicide in the market area and surrounding neighborhoods.
Guillermo Izacur, president of the LGBT Jarochos organization, stated that due to the insecurity faced by sexual diversity in the state of Veracruz, some trans women, like Denisse, have had to emigrate.
“Yes, they had been reporting that there is a lot of insecurity because there are even girls who have had to leave Veracruz, especially trans girls, because of the insecurity of walking in the street, because of the fear that they can't walk around late at night in that market area. Yes, there are many reports and it is very dangerous for the girls and everyone who goes there,” she said.
He said that for this reason they will request a series of dialogue sessions with the authorities so that prevention measures can be established and thus prevent the continued murders of people in the community.
Denisse will be given a farewell by the LGBT community in the Veracruz area and will then be taken to Las Libres for burial, according to local deputy Gonzalo Durán Chincoya.
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