During the first year of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's government, at least 117 LGBT people were killed in Mexico for reasons related to the sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of the victims. This represents the highest figure in the last five years. And it means that, in our country, a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person is murdered every three days.
In the last five years, from 2015 to 2019, at least 441 LGBT people were victims of homicidal violence. 2019 was the most violent year of the five-year period, with an increase of 27 percent compared to the previous year's figure and placed well above the average of 88 homicides of LGBT people per year in that period of time, confirming the upward trend of this type of extreme violence motivated by prejudice towards sexual diversity and gender identity.
The above figures are based on the monitoring carried out by the hate crime observatory that the civil organization Letter S, AIDS, Culture and Daily Life carries out every year, and which is presented within the framework of the National and International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Bisexophobia, to be commemorated on May 17.
Transgender and transsexual women, the most numerous victims
Of the groups that are part of the sexual and generic diversity, trans women or trans people with feminine expression were the most numerous victims during 2019 with 64 transfeminicides, which represents almost 55 percent of the total number of registrations; followed by gay / gay men, with at least 36 homicides, 31 percent of the total. Likewise, nine lesbofeminicides were registered, 7.6 percent of the cases; a bisexual woman and a man, two mux people, and for the first time the murder of a trans man or trans person with a masculine expression became visible.
From the figures obtained over the past year, it is worth noting that at least nine people were defenders of LGBT rights and six were public figures well known in their environment for their social work; while two were Central American migrants.
The patterns of violence are based on the sexual and gender identity of the victims. While most of the bodies of gay / gay men were found in their homes with multiple injuries caused by sharp objects or suffocated by victimizers who contacted them in meeting places, through gay dating chats or by other means; The bodies of trans women, many of them sex and beauty workers, were found on public roads or in vacant lots with wounds caused by firearms and sharps. It is striking that in some of the cases, lesbian women were killed together with their partner or in the presence of their partner.
The distinctive feature that characterizes the homicides of LGBT people is the cruelty with which they are committed. The results of the monitoring show the multiple types of violence to which many of the victims were subjected. At least 47 of the victims' bodies had multiple blows, physical or with diamond objects, and wounds caused by sharp objects; five of the victims also suffered sexual violence, and the bodies of at least 26 of the victims showed visible marks of “torture”, and / or were hand and foot tied.
Veracruz, the state with the highest number of cases
Regarding geographical distribution, Veracruz continues to remain at the top of the list with at least 28 murders, followed by Chihuahua with 20 cases. Entities that had a very marked increase in relation to previous years in 2019. And taking the accumulated number of LGBT victims in the last five years, in addition to Veracruz with 57 victims, the entities of Guerrero stand out with 42, Chihuahua with 38, Quintana Roo with 24, State of Mexico also with 24, and Tamaulipas and the City from Mexico with 23 victims each. Together, these seven entities concentrate more than half of the total number of LGBT victims of lethal violence in the last five years.
Regarding the lines of investigation followed by state prosecutors and prosecutors, the little relevance they attach to the sexual orientation and gender identity of the victims in their investigations stands out. In this regard, only in four of the cases is hate crime mentioned as a possible line of investigation. And in six of the cases of lesbian victims and bisexual women, femicide is mentioned as a line of investigation, without mentioning their sexual orientation. And in the context of the criminal violence that the country is experiencing, seven LGBT deaths are victims of organized crime.
Possible decrease in the number of LGBT homicides due to measures taken against COVID-19
In the first four months of this year, until April 30, 2020, Letter S has recorded 26 murders of LGBT people. This represents a lower figure compared to the number of cases in the same period of the year 2019, which was 37 violent deaths. Of this number, 20 victims are trans women, four gay / gay men, two lesbians and two others still to confirm their sexual orientation.
This lower figure is probably due to the unexpected effect of the social distancing measures established to face the health contingency by COVID-19, which significantly reduced the interaction between people.
Alejandro Brito, director of the organization Letra S, affirmed that the main obstacle to face this growing lethal violence against LGBT people in the country is the lack of official records. As long as the state prosecutors do not register the sexual orientation and gender identity of the victims, we will not advance in the search for solutions, he said. "It is likely that social distancing measures have reduced the number of homicides committed against LGBT people, but if no prevention actions are planned for this type of crime, I do not doubt that the numbers will increase again as soon as the activities. "
The monitoring of the Letter S organization is based on the systematized information extracted from the press reports. So the figures provided are an approximation to the actual figures, as the press releases do not report all cases of violent deaths against LGBT people. Read more via Letra S