Honduras sees increase in hate crimes in the past six months
The Miami Herald reports: Walter Tróchez spent a lot time at Honduras police stations and morgues: he was the HIV-positive gay activist who got the call every time a transgender sex worker was murdered on the streets of Honduras.
His phone rang often. Human rights advocates say up to 18 gay and transgender men have been killed nationwide -- as many as the five prior years -- in the nearly six months since a political crisis rocked the nation. Activists say the spike illustrates a breakdown in the rule of law in a country already known for hate crimes.
Tróchez is now among the victims. Last week, just days after he escaped a six-hour kidnapping ordeal, an unknown assailant fired at him from a moving vehicle, silencing one of Honduras' most prominent voices in the gay community.
The next day, the headless and castrated body of a transvestite was found on the highway near San Pedro Sula.
"Walter was afraid,'' said Reina Rivera, director of the Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights, known by its acronym in Spanish, CIPRODEH. "He was a leader in the Resistance, but we thought he was in a precarious situation because he was also HIV-positive and gay in a patriarchal, machista and homophobic society.''
Prior to Tróchez's murder, CIPRODEH enlisted New York attorney David Brown to research the issue of violence against the LGBT community. Brown documented 171 acts of violence since 2004, including rapes, stabbings, beatings and murders. Brown tallies another 10 murders since Zelaya's June ouster, but activists in Tegucigalpa say they count 18. Brown said his number is lower because he only counts incidents that were clearly hate crimes.
A May 2009 Human Rights Watch report said there were 17 murders of transgender people -- many of them prostitutes -- from 2004 to 2008.
"Since the coup, there's been a noticeable uptick in violence,'' Brown said. "There is a social breakdown and a breakdown in law enforcement. You walk into government offices and you get the sense that nobody is doing anything.''
Honduras is currently ruled by an interim government that took power after the military ousted the president at gunpoint. The former president is at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, and much of the de facto government's attention the past few months has been focused on remaining in power. A new administration takes over Jan. 27.
"It's not necessarily that people from the government are committing these crimes,'' Brown said, "but it's clear that it's open season on this community.''
The Human Rights Watch report suggests authorities are responsible for much of the violence. The report quoted several transgender sex workers saying they had been raped and even stabbed by police officers who demanded sexual favors.
The report cites an ambiguous Honduran law that allows police to pick up people for "immoral behavior'' as a root of the problem.
His phone rang often. Human rights advocates say up to 18 gay and transgender men have been killed nationwide -- as many as the five prior years -- in the nearly six months since a political crisis rocked the nation. Activists say the spike illustrates a breakdown in the rule of law in a country already known for hate crimes.Tróchez is now among the victims. Last week, just days after he escaped a six-hour kidnapping ordeal, an unknown assailant fired at him from a moving vehicle, silencing one of Honduras' most prominent voices in the gay community.
The next day, the headless and castrated body of a transvestite was found on the highway near San Pedro Sula.
"Walter was afraid,'' said Reina Rivera, director of the Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights, known by its acronym in Spanish, CIPRODEH. "He was a leader in the Resistance, but we thought he was in a precarious situation because he was also HIV-positive and gay in a patriarchal, machista and homophobic society.''
Prior to Tróchez's murder, CIPRODEH enlisted New York attorney David Brown to research the issue of violence against the LGBT community. Brown documented 171 acts of violence since 2004, including rapes, stabbings, beatings and murders. Brown tallies another 10 murders since Zelaya's June ouster, but activists in Tegucigalpa say they count 18. Brown said his number is lower because he only counts incidents that were clearly hate crimes.
A May 2009 Human Rights Watch report said there were 17 murders of transgender people -- many of them prostitutes -- from 2004 to 2008.
"Since the coup, there's been a noticeable uptick in violence,'' Brown said. "There is a social breakdown and a breakdown in law enforcement. You walk into government offices and you get the sense that nobody is doing anything.''
Honduras is currently ruled by an interim government that took power after the military ousted the president at gunpoint. The former president is at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, and much of the de facto government's attention the past few months has been focused on remaining in power. A new administration takes over Jan. 27.
"It's not necessarily that people from the government are committing these crimes,'' Brown said, "but it's clear that it's open season on this community.''
The Human Rights Watch report suggests authorities are responsible for much of the violence. The report quoted several transgender sex workers saying they had been raped and even stabbed by police officers who demanded sexual favors.
The report cites an ambiguous Honduran law that allows police to pick up people for "immoral behavior'' as a root of the problem.
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