CIUDAD JUAREZ (MEXICO) – The gruesome killing of a second transgender woman in northern Mexico has left the local transgender community in fear. It has called for tight protections in the Latin American nation.
Few days after a transgender civil society group protested there, Leslie Rocha was killed brutally in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
It was triggered late by the murder late of Ciudad Juarez-born transgender activist Mireya Rodriguez Lemus. Mireya’s body was found earlier this week in Aquiles Serdan, a town in the northern Chihuahua state.
A transgender woman in Ciudad Juarez, on condition of anonymity, said, “We don’t know what to do anymore because there are so many hate crimes against the trans population.”
Deborah Alvarez, a transgender activist spoke about the community clouded by worries about its safety. She said, “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.”
Police in Ciudad Juarez did not immediately respond to a comment
Last year saw the killing of 117 people from the LGBT+ community in Mexico, according to local advocacy group Letra S.
Rocha’s aunt, Leticia Sanchez, said, “They’re torturing them, they’re killing them horribly.”
“Justice must be had because they deserve respect even if they aren’t women – they deserve support. Why are they doing this?”