MEXICO CITY ā Authorities in Mexico said at least three transgender people were killed in the first two weeks of 2024, and rights groups were investigating two additional such cases. The slayings marked a violent start to the year in a country where the LGBTQ+ community is often targeted.
The latest death came on Sunday, when transgender activist and politician Samantha Gómez Fonseca was shot multiple times and slain inside a car in the south of Mexico City, according to local prosecutors.
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The killings spurred outrage among members of the LGBTQ+ community who protested in Mexico Cityās main throughway on Monday.
Around 100 people marched chanting: āSamantha listen, weāre fighting for youā and carrying signs reading āyour hate speech kills.ā Another group of protesters earlier in the day spray painted the words ātrans lives matterā on the walls of Mexicoās National Palace.
Fonseca, the activist and politician slain on Sunday, originally intended to march alongside other activists to call for greater acceptance of transgender people in society. After her death, the march quickly turned into a call for justice and for more comprehensive laws around hate crimes.
Paulina Carrazco, a 41-year-old trans woman among the marchers, said it felt like āthe violence was knocking on our front door.ā
āWe are scared, but with that fear weāre going to keep fighting," Carrazco said. āWe're going to do everything in our power so the next generations won't have to live in fear.ā
Gay and transgender populations are regularly attacked and killed in Mexico, a nation marked by its āmachoā and highly religious population. The brutality of some of the attacks is meant to send a message to Queer people that they are not welcome in society.
Over the past six years, the rights group Letra S has documented at least 513 targeted killings of LGBTQ+ people in Mexico. Just last year, the violent death of one of the most recognizable LGBTQ+ figured in Mexico, Ociel Baena, sparked a similar wave of outrage and protests.
Some like 55-year-old Xomalia RamĆrez said the violence was a partly consequence of comments made by Mexican President AndrĆ©s Manuel López Obrador last week when he described a transgender congresswoman as āman dressed as a woman.ā
While López Obrador later apologized, marchers like RamĆrez, a transgender woman from the southern state of Oaxaca, said it was too little too late.
RamĆrez said women like her struggle to find work and when they do, their gender identity is regularly ignored. Working as a Spanish teacher, she said her bosses force her to wear menās clothes to work.
āIf I want to work, I have to disguise myself as a man,ā RamĆrez said. āIf I donāt, I wonāt eat.ā
āThese comments by the president have created transphobia and resulted in hate crimes against the trans community,ā RamĆrez added.
Last week, a transgender activist, Miriam NohemĆ RĆos, was shot to death while working in her business in the central Mexican state of MichoacĆ”n.
On Saturday, authorities in the central state of Jalisco said they found a transgender person's body laying in a ravine with gunshot wounds.
Two other cases, were not immediately confirmed by law enforcement, but were registered by rights groups who said they often struggle to get details from officials in their efforts to document hate crimes.
One transgender woman known as āIvonneā was slain alongside her partner in the southern state of Veracruz, according to the National Observatory of Hate Crimes Against LGBTI people.
Meanwhile, Letra S. documented the killing of transgender stylist Gaby OrtĆz, whose body was found in the Hidalgo state. Local media, citing local authorities, said her body was found on the side of the road next to āa threatening messageā written on a piece of cardboard.
Law enforcement said they would investigate the violent deaths but the activists said they doubted anything would come of the cases. Due to high levels of corruption and overall disfunction in Mexico's government, around 99% of crimes in Mexico go unsolved.
āIt's very likely that cases like this will end in impunity,ā said Jair MartĆnez, an analyst for Letra S.
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Associated Press reporter MarĆa Verza contributed to this report.