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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. A man has been arrested for the transgender murder of Liliana “La Chaqueña” Varoni in Almirante Brown, Buenos Aires Province. Based on the medical report and witness testimonies, the Lomas de Zamora Prosecutor's Office (UFI 3) changed the charge to homicide. Maximiliano Martín Leito, 39, was arrested and is being held at the 2nd Police Station in Burzaco , Buenos Aires Province, accused of her murder.

La Chaqueña, a trans survivor, was the victim of a hate crime on July 3rd while working as a sex worker on the highway, on Monteverde Avenue, at the Burzaco roundabout. She would have turned 65 on July 9th. 

From the moment the news broke, Paulo Kyriakos, the Director of Diversity for the Municipality of Quilmes, who is also a leader in the Orgullo Brown group and a friend of the family, remained silent, trying to keep things quiet so the prosecutor's office could focus on the search while the suspect was on the run. For the trans and travesti women of La Chaqueña, the pain of her violent death brings back memories of the risks each of them faced in their lives. To avoid paralysis, fear requires rituals: marching to the prosecutor's offices is part of their regular routine.

The video clearly shows the moment the assailant throws the brick that hits Varoni in the forehead. His house in Montegrande had been raided the weekend of July 8th, but he had already fled by the time the raid took place. The detainee was known as a drug user, a regular on the fringes of society, who boasted about "moving" cocaine and crack, as Presentes was able to confirm with various sources. "He often paid. Other times he expected to get free treatment. La Chaqueña once hit him with a stick," were some of the testimonies gathered by this agency. He has a criminal record. 

On Friday the 7th, four trans women testified before the court, stating that he had threatened them with a knife in the same area. A woman, his ex-partner, who had previously reported him for gender-based violence, also testified. She accused him of causing her to lose a pregnancy as a result of his beatings. 

 “Even when you die, they don’t respect your identity.”

Liliana's forehead was lovingly made up for her farewell. She was laid to rest in an open casket on the morning of Monday, July 10th, at the San José community center. The burial took place at 1 p.m. in the Almirante Brown municipal cemetery in Rafael Calzada.

The death certificate was issued with a name Liliana did not recognize as her own. But outrage erupted when those present saw that the cross accompanying the coffin did not bear the letter L for Liliana, but rather the letter of the name assigned to her at birth, which did not correspond to her identity. 

“In a fit of rage—I don’t know where I got the strength—I grabbed the cross and threw it around,” a friend recounts, somewhat sheepishly. The trans and travesti people present applauded him. Then the Orgullo Brown group organized a fundraiser and days later installed a cross that now reads: “Liliana Varoni, La Chaqueña.” 

“It’s symbolic, but it was very powerful. I had just finished doing her makeup for the wake, and the cross was hard. Now we want to create a mosaic of diversity for her. Her Chaco identity was her smile, her voice, her way of walking; she always had a kind word to say. For those of us who remain, it’s more comforting to have a space to bring her flowers,” says the friend who prefers not to reveal his identity. 

The situation with the cross was unfair and uncomfortable: the colleague who removed it apologized to each member of the family and to her friends, and no one objected. “Everyone told me it was fine, that she would have been proud because that cross didn't identify her. It was very powerful. It said 'Argentine' with an O.” 

For his part, Kiiriakos warns: “With this plaque, the cemetery management should be aware that this cross violates article 12 of the Gender Identity Law 26.743, which guarantees dignified treatment.” 

The approval was unanimous. There were, and still are, too many precedents: among them, a case in the neighboring district of La Matanza. There, a trans woman who worked as a police officer , whose life was made impossible by the force, ended up taking her own life. At her family's request, she was mourned and buried under her biological name. "It was in March 2018, and I could never forget that case, because even when you die, they don't respect your self-perception ," she recalls, demanding respect.

“Throughout this whole process of gains, laws, and coordination, everything is moving very slowly. We, transvestites like Liliana, have had some opportunities to see how to build a better life. Historically, we were pushed into the void, and only a few of our comrades, like Lohana Berkins, had access to rights. She was the first to get a job in the Judiciary,” says Marcela Tobaldi , from Rosa Naranja, a transvestite organization in the City of Buenos Aires, and an employee of the National Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity.

“We in Argentina are supposed to be the most advanced country in Latin America in terms of human rights for our communities. We have laws passed in the National Congress. But reality sometimes contrasts political progress with daily life in our communities ,” says Tobaldi. Faced with each news report of a transvesticide or transfemicide, Tobaldi asks herself, “What is the point we need to evaluate?” She offers some answers: “It’s the responsibility of the national government, the provincial government, the municipalities, and the organizations that are on the ground. But the government thinks that the LGBTIQ+ community has the responsibility to occupy all these spaces, and we can’t keep up.”

La Chaqueña died at the Rafael Calzada Municipal Hospital, a day after the attack, early Tuesday morning, the 4th. She had lost a significant amount of brain tissue. Despite repeated calls from neighbors, the ambulance and police took 45 minutes to arrive at the scene. Orgullo Brown called for the intervention of various government agencies.

The gender unit of the Provincial Ministry of Security, which oversees the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, ratified the complaint because it was written using masculine pronouns. The case is also being closely monitored by Daniela Castro , a transgender official with Ministry of Women .

“With the extremely painful experience we had when Diana Sacayán’s case was stripped of the transvesticide designation, we are on alert, and we will be watching closely, so that the judiciary is less unjust and applies some of the diversity that it finds so difficult,” Kyriacos points out, in relation to the judicial setback that was the refusal of the Criminal Cassation Chamber to validate the transvesticide designation that had been handed down in the first instance.

Reparations for survivors

Transvestite and trans people over 40, like "La Chaqueña," are considered survivors because the life expectancy for this community ranges from 35 to 40 years. This is related to the structural violence they have suffered and their lack of access to rights such as healthcare, which is why a law of historical reparations is being demanded. 

On May 24th of this year, more than 90 organizations participated in the First Plurinational March for a "Historical Reparation Law Now ." It was also a historic march because of the number of transvestite and trans people who came from the provinces to participate in the call launched by the organization Travestis-Trans Las Históricas Argentina .