Third Anniversary of Gay Killing
On behalf of Gays Without Borders, transgender leader Veronika Fimbres and I are organizing a noontime vigil this Thursday, December 13, to mark the third anniversary of the assassination of gay Honduran democracy activist Walter Trochez, pictured.
The one-hour vigil takes place in front the Honduran consulate, located in the Flood Building on Market near the Powell Street cable car turn-around.
Trochez was active in many causes at the time of his murder by right-wing militia forces. He fought for the human rights of LGBT and HIV positive persons, organized peasant farmers and defied the ruling junta after the Honduran coup of June 28, 2009.
Nearly six months after the coup, Trochez on December 13, 2009, was gunned down on a street in the capital of Tegucigalpa. Law enforcement agencies never conducted a thorough investigation into his death and no one has been charged or arrested in the case.
At our vigil on Thursday, we will debut our 21-foot portable fiberglass flagpole and display the Honduran and rainbow flags together. We need folks to join us and hold up posters of Trochez. Our message to the Honduran consulate and government in Tegucigalpa will be to demand justice for Trochez and all of the hundreds of murdered LGBTI people and peasant and labor organizers.
A recent press release from an important human rights organization sheds lights on a transgender woman's death and other harms being visited upon LGBTI persons in Honduras:
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the murder of Barbarita, a 21-year-old trans woman, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
According to the information received, on August 2, 2012, in a remote area in Colonia San Martín, San Pedro Sula, the body of Barbarita (registered at birth as Marlon Javier Jiménez Alemán), was found with a series of bullet wounds to her face and head. Also, her hands showed signs of being tied behind her back . . .
The Commission continues to receive information on killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and other forms of violence and exclusion against lesbians, gays, and trans, bisexual, and intersex persons. In addition, the Commission notes that very frequently, problems exist in the investigation of those crimes, which involve, in part, failures to open lines of investigation into whether the crime was committed by reason of the victim's gender identity or sexual orientation.
The ineffectiveness of the state response fosters high rates of impunity, which in turn lead to the chronic repetition of such crimes, leaving the victims and their families defenseless.
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