- Title: Fear and calls for justice follow transgender murders in Mexico
- Date: 6th September 2020
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST, DEBORAH ALVAREZ, SAYING: "A few days ago we had the death of a trans woman in the city of Chihuahua who was originally from (Ciudad) Juarez. She was Mireya Rodriguez Lemus and belonged to a civil society organization, and now it's Leslie here downtown. Now we're a little scared, a little terrified, afraid to go out in the streets
- Embargoed: 20th September 2020 03:36
- Keywords: Chihuahua LGBT Mexico assassination crime hate murder rights trans transgender victim woman
- Location: CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO
- City: CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,South America / Central America,Mexico
- Reuters ID: LVA002CUJU91J
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS NOTE: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
The gruesome killing on Saturday (September 05) of a second transgender woman in northern Mexico has unnerved the local transgender community and amplified calls for greater protections in the Latin American nation.
The murder of Leslie Rocha in the border city of Ciudad Juarez came days after a transgender civil society group staged a protest there to demand greater protection.
Those demands were sparked by the murder late of Ciudad Juarez-born transgender activist Mireya Rodriguez Lemus, whose body was found earlier this week in Aquiles Serdan, a town in the northern Chihuahua state.
A transgender woman in Ciudad Juarez, who declined to give her name, said people are "a little scared, a little terrified" to go out on the streets.
"We don't know what to do anymore because there are so many hate crimes against the trans population."
Deborah Alvarez, a transgender activist who spoke to Reuters earlier in the week, described a community beset by worries about its safety.
"You can't imagine what all us trans people have lived through to arrive here, for us still to see that we haven't been defended," she said.
Police in Ciudad Juarez did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Last year 117 people from the LGBT+ community were killed in Mexico, up almost a third compared from 2018 and the highest since 2015, according to local advocacy group Letra S.
"They're torturing them, they're killing them horribly," said Rocha's aunt, Leticia Sanchez.
(Production: Jose Luis Gonzalez, Manuel Carrillo, Patrick Alwine) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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- Usage Terms/Restrictions: WARNING: Editors please note, this clip contains graphic material