Justice for the transfemicide of Sofía Fernández: Police officers who were acquitted are being prosecuted.
Sofía Fernández was "found" dead in a police station in April 2023. Of the ten police officers involved in an investigation marked by irregularities—including the deletion of more than 190 messages from Sofía's cell phone—only one will face trial. Family members and activists went to the San Isidro courts to request that the dismissals be annulled.
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Sofía Fernández's family, along with the Justice Commission and self-organized groups, transvestite and trans representatives, social organizations, human rights, feminist, and diversity groups, mobilized today at the San Isidro courts to demand justice for the transfemicide. "No one commits suicide in a police station. More than two years later, it has not been possible to determine with certainty the exact day of her death," her sister Mabel recalled today. One of their main demands is that several of the police officers from the 5th Derqui precinct who were charged in the investigation be brought to trial.
Sofía was a 39-year-old transgender teacher living in Pilar who was arbitrarily detained on April 8, 2023, in circumstances that have never been made public. She was found dead two days later, according to the police report, in a cell at the Derqui police station in the Pilar district. Ten police officers were arrested in her case. The last of them was released by Judge Walter Saettone of the Pilar Guarantee Court No. 7 in June.
Since the start of the case, nine police officers have been acquitted by Judge Saettone, while only one of them, Officer Carlos Rodríguez, will stand trial for triple aggravated homicide. This means that the request by the Prosecutor's Office and the plaintiffs to classify the case as a hate crime based on gender identity also went unheeded.
Today's demonstration was a response from Sofía Fernández's family and the Justice Commission to "raise awareness and support the denunciation of all the arbitrary acts and demand that all those involved be brought to trial, now in the hands of the San Isidro Court."
“The police always cover up”
«The family and friends of Sofía Fernández, together with the organizations and various spaces of society that are present here today, come to express our deep concern at the decision made by the Judge of the Guarantee Court No. 7 of Pilar, Walter Saetone, to acquit 9 of the 10 police officers investigated for their participation in the death of Sofía Fernández, which occurred approximately on April 10, 2023», they read on the open radio that was set up as part of the mobilization.
Starting at 11 a.m., transvestite and trans activists began speaking, including Las Históricas, Marlene Wayar, Erika Moreno, and Quimey Ramos. Also speaking were human rights figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Claudia Korol of Pañuelos en rebeldía and Feministas del Abya Yala. Representatives of the Left Front were also present, including Christian Castillo (PTS) and Romina del Pla of the Left Front (Workers' Party). Relatives of victims of institutional violence also attended, such as Ivone Kukoc, mother of Juan Pablo Kukoc, murdered by police officer Luis Oscar Chocobar.
“The police always cover up. They killed my son because he was black and poor. I find it hard to talk about these issues, but I come here with great force to demand justice for Sofía and my comrades. Enough with the killings in prisons and police stations. Down with the walls,” said Ivone Kukoc.
The plaintiff representing Sofía's family has been monitoring and criticizing the investigation for some time, denouncing the complicity of the courts with the police. The Prosecutor's Office and the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM) also pointed out a series of irregularities, which had already been mentioned by the family. Now, the three parties have appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the dismissals. The case is in the hands of the First Chamber of San Isidro, composed of Carlos Blanco, Leonardo Pitlevnik, and Oscar Quintana, who will decide how to move forward.
“It's very important to us that the Supreme Court and the judges at San Isidro respond. We know she was tortured, and after two years, we still don't even know the exact day she was killed. Instead of deciding the time of her murder, the prosecutor at the time decided to determine whether Sofia had used drugs or not. They sprinkled cocaine in her eyes; she had no drugs in her system,” Mabel said.
Sofia's autopsy revealed that third parties were involved in causing her death.
“Strength, Mabel! You are not alone!” those present encouraged.
190 messages deleted from cell phone
“The judge didn't see the autopsy. He didn't listen to it. We've been protesting since May 8th of last year, when we went to Court 7 in Pilar to tell Judge Walter, 'You were wrong, we want justice for Sofía. The lives of trans people matter to us. I want my sister to be able to rest. I want me to be able to rest and obtain justice for Sofía. She had a life she was proud of. No one deserves to die in prison,” Mabel said today.
There are several irregularities in the case: the Derqui police station logbook was tampered with and found on the officers' cell phones; more than 190 messages were deleted from Sofía's cell phone while she was in custody; there are devices belonging to the officers that were not examined; messages exchanged between them; and various pieces of evidence that were either not produced or would need to be analyzed before a dismissal is issued. Furthermore, it was never clarified why Sofía was held in a men's prison when she was supposedly charged with a supposedly bailable offense. All of these arguments were used by the plaintiff representing the family to request a dismissal.
“Our bodies are not in court”
Transvestite activist Marlene Wayar also took the microphone in front of the San Isidro courts. “Our transvestite bodies are never within the institutional structure of the Justice system, neither the Legislative nor the Executive branches. We have to resign ourselves to death because it will be our turn. They are heterosexual, they run the world, they vote for each other. We must think about how we embrace and protect each other and how we use the tools to continue,” she stated. She proposed analyzing how “transvestites, trans people, and dissidents can propose breaking out of this human box we have built for a higher evolution where we are not predators of ourselves. Justice for Sofía. May we have time to think and embrace each other because they don't listen and have never listened to us.”
"We're here to demand the impeachment of Patricia Bullrich, Milei, and the judges. We're going to demand that the law be upheld here. This can't continue to happen to the transvestite community in 2025, and the national government is complicit," said transvestite activist Erika Moreno.
"Justice is the people's right to live in a real democracy, not a parody of it," explained Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a member of SERPAJ (Peace and Justice Service) and president of the Provincial Commission for Memory, which is following the case.
“From the CPM, we monitor the province of Buenos Aires, in prisons and police stations. We encountered this way of acting within the public security . We must unite, as our comrades said, in diversity and try to dig deeper so that things change and prevent abuses of power. We will continue praying for Sofía and for all the cases we are constantly addressing in the country. Don't stop smiling at life; the day you stop smiling is because we have been defeated,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner concluded.
Feminist Claudia Korol spoke of "patriarchal justice that legitimizes violence" and of the permanent punishment placed on dissidents: whether they be young people, youth from working-class neighborhoods, or Mapuche identities. "Our response is not to believe in this patriarchal justice, but to demand it in the streets, fighting and speaking out." She also remembered Nora Cortiñas, Lohana Berkins, and Diana Sacayán. And with her eyes on the Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Trans, and NB in Corrientes, she called for "placing the march against transvesticide at the center, with more force than ever. As Lohana once said: let love be what unites us; let us make meeting and embracing our path to ending this pedagogy of cruelty."
The radio station also expressed solidarity "to the comrades who will be meeting in Bahía Blanca this Saturday the 13th to demand justice for the transvesticide of Ro Sansone, a comrade who organized the first Pride marches in Salta alongside the historic Pelusa."
Adding to the twists and turns of the case and the impunity is the fact that the new defense attorney for the only person prosecuted by Judge Saettone, Officer Carlos Rodriguez, is a libertarian lawyer, Francisco Onetto, who was a candidate for vice governor of the province for La Libertad Avanza in 2023 alongside Carolina Píparo. He is also currently the attorney for President Javier Milei in the investigation into the Libra scandal.
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