Itzel Castellanos @FacebookItzel
On October 9, Itzel Castellanos, a nineteen-year-old transgender person, was killed with a knife outside her home in Comitan, Chiapas. On September 30, Paola, a 25-year-old transgender sex worker was shot dead in Mexico City.
In the case of the Isthmus of Juchitan in Oaxaca, being muxe (homosexual or transgender) is considered a gift because parents believe that the son or daughter muxe is loyal to the family and will not be married and will look after them. However, several organizations have reported an increase in murders of transgender people in this area also, “According to the Sexual Diversity organization, from 2010 to May 2016 over 120 killings of non-heterosexual people were committed in Oaxaca. Meanwhile, the National Catholic Youth Network for the Right to Decide reported that in the last 14 months 17 hate crimes were committed; 15 in 2015 and two in 2016, in the regions of the coast, the Isthmus and the Central Valleys.”
In a broader sense, according to La Jornada newspaper, the Observatory of Murdered Trans People and the Citizens Commission Against Hate Crimes Homophobia argues that Mexico ranks second in the world with 229 such killings (ahead Brazil, with 802, and followed by the US with 132)
For more information in Spanish:
El asesinato atroz e impune de Paola, una transexual, deja muy mal parada a la “tolerante” CdMx (Sin Embargo, 6 de octubre de 2016)
Asesinato de joven transexual indigna a la comunidad gay de Chiapas (Revista Proceso, 8 de octubre de 2016)
Itzel, transexual de 19 años, es asesinada a puñaladas, en su casa de Chiapas; van 20 en 2016 (Sin Embargo, 9 de octubre de 2016)
Crímenes por homofobia en Juchitán derrumban el mito de paraíso muxe (La Jornada, 10 de octubre de 2016)
Itzel Durán, una joven transexual de 19 años, fue asesinada en Chiapas (Animal Político, 10 de octubre de 2016)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Chiapas: Denuncian violencia policial en la detención de transexuales en Palenque (17 de diciembre de 2015)
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