Activists demand justice for transsexual murdered in Bolivia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Activists for the rights of the LGBTI community in Bolivia demanded justice for the murder in December 2018 of the transsexual Litzy Hurtado, with a sit-in in front of a court since Thursday when the trial began.

A dozen activists and relatives of the young woman arrived at the doors of the Fourth Sentencing Court of El Alto, neighboring La Paz, to accompany the start of the judicial proceeding.

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“Justice for Litzy”, “enough transphobia”, “no more hate crimes,” and “let hate and intolerance, not blind justice” were some of the messages on the banners displayed by the demonstrators to demand that the crime not go unpunished.

Litzy was 24 years old when she was murdered in a discotheque, where she was first assaulted by a group of men and finally stabbed with a screwdriver that fatally wounded her.

“I ask that there be justice for my sister and also for me, and give guarantees for my person,” Davinia, Litzy’s sister, told Efe news agency.

The president of the Organization of Transvestites, Transgender and Transsexual Feminine of Bolivia (Otraf), Luna Humérez, lamented that more than two years have passed since Litzy’s death without justice in her case.

“Justice has been delayed too much to make these oral trials because there is evidence, there are videos, there is everything to point to the accused, and the due process has not been done so that once and for all we have sentence in this case”, denounced Humérez.

The activist is hopeful that this time the process will move forward and a conviction will be reached.

It is estimated that in recent years there have been about 70 hate crimes in Bolivia. However, the figure is an approximation based on data collected by civil organizations in the absence of official information because this type of crime is not typified as such in Bolivian law.

An emblematic case for the LGBTI community is transsexual Dayana Kenia, tortured and beheaded by her partner in April 2016.

The case of Dayana Kenia is the only one that concluded with a judicial sentence, which was made possible by the impulse of her relatives and the collectives defending this population.

“And that is why we continue to mobilize so that all cases do not go unpunished and so that trans women do not continue to be murdered like vile dogs,” said Humérez.

Between January 2020 and May 2021, some 57 complaints from the LGBTI population have been registered, most of them related to requests for equality and non-discrimination, guarantees of due process and access to justice, right to personal integrity, identity, and access to health, according to data from the Ombudsman’s Office.