More than 3,000 rural women, activists, residents of the Bañado Sur neighborhood, lesbians, trans women, cisgender women, students, and sex workers marched through the streets of Asunción, Paraguay, to demand an end to femicides, discrimination, and gender-based violence. They did so under the banner "We will not be silent anymore," on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, November 25th.
The trans population of Paraguay suffers violence, discrimination and lack of access to work, health and education, says the report “Waiting for Death”.
The trans population of Paraguay suffers violence, discrimination and lack of access to work, health and education, says the report “Waiting for Death”.
Transgender women in Asunción and surrounding areas reported at least five attacks against them in a single night over the past weekend. They denounce a new wave of violence against them, and also the impunity surrounding these crimes.
Trans activist Yren Rotela reported that on Friday, October 27, four men in a white car fired an air rifle at a group of women who, excluded from the job market because of their gender identity, survive by working as sex workers in the town of San Lorenzo, in Greater Asunción. The incident occurred two weeks after the murder of Romina Vargas Florentín, a 28-year-old sex worker who was stabbed to death in the street in the same area.
Romina Vargas Florentín, a 28-year-old trans woman, was murdered on Sunday, October 15, in San Lorenzo (Greater Asunción). Violence has escalated in the area in recent weeks. “We hold the Paraguayan State and the fundamentalist groups calling themselves ‘Pro-Life’ responsible for this latest hate crime and for continuing to sow hatred and…”
The organization Panambí filed a complaint against Asunción police for “torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” of a 23-year-old transgender woman. She has been detained for a week and says she is being arbitrarily accused. The complaint was filed with the Human Rights Prosecutor's Office in Asunción and the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (MNP).
Andrea González was murdered in December 2016 in Ciudad del Este. She was 20 years old and had a hearing impairment. This is the first transphobic murder in Paraguay where the Prosecutor's Office has filed charges, but there are reports that a witness has been threatened and the main suspect is under house arrest. A march was held to demand that the crime not go unpunished. "They kill us and no one goes to jail."
At the 47th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS)—which concluded yesterday in Cancún, Mexico—the Paraguayan foreign minister objected to a section of a resolution against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Paraguayan LGBTI organizations believe that the Paraguayan government is leading an increasingly open and belligerent anti-rights stance in the region.
Support us