As I like to remind you peeps on a regular basis about, trans rights are an international human rights issue.I also need to point out that the US and Brazil aren't the only nations in which we have had an obscene number of trans women murdered inside their borders. They happen in Central and South America, and in 2015 alone there have been seven killed in El Salvador this year that we will be unfortunately reading their names at TDOR.
Being a trans activist is tough to begin with, but in some parts of the world you are literally putting your life on the line when you do so. The seventh trans person killed this year in El Salvador is a concrete example of that.
She is 29 year old Francela Mendez Rodriguez. She has been a member of the Salvadoran trans advocacy group Colectivo Alejandria ever since it was founded in 2010. She has not only worked tirelessly in her nation to advance the cause of trans human rights in El Salvador, she has also worked in local HIV prevention programs.
On May 30 Mendez was visiting her friend Consuela Flores Martinez at her home in the town of Sonsonate, 40 miles west of San Salvador when a group of unknown assailants murdered both of them.
It was a murder condemned on June 4 by David Morales, the Attorney For The Defense of Human Rights in El Salvador, and said in a La Prensa Grafica interview, " The LGBT population is victimized by discrimination, rejection and intolerance which can be seen in grave violations of their human rights.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also condemned Mendez's murder, and urged the Salvadoran government in a June 8 statement to initiate an exhaustive investigation to be conducted with due diligence, and to prosecute and punish those responsible.
In particular, the IACHR encourages the State of El Salvador to follow lines of investigation that take into account whether the killing of Francela Méndez is related to her work in defense of the human rights of LGBTI persons, or whether it was committed because of her gender identity. The Commission welcomes the message by the Attorney General for the Defense of Human Rights of El Salvador, David Morales, who according to media reports, had requested the District Attorney’s Office to investigate this killing without discrimination, and reportedly stated that the impunity of the killings of trans persons encourages their repetition.
Rest in power, Francela. May the people who committed this heinous crime be caught and punished for it.
The
29-year-old had been a member of Salvadoran trans advocacy group
Colectivo Alejandría since it was founded in 2010, working tirelessly
for human rights and in HIV prevention programs. - See more at:
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/leading-trans-activist-murdered-el-savador090615#sthash.Rwezp2P0.10yH9172.dpuf
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