Homophobia
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Since the beginning of the year, in Medellín, at least eleven people have been murdered after suffering abuse. Faced with this criminal wave, the authorities are struggling to establish a link between these cases which mobilize the LGBT + community.
A series of eleven crimes, most undoubtedly homophobic or transphobic, has upset Medellín, Colombia’s second city since the beginning of the year. Several of these homicides took place in similar conditions, after a meeting on an app or in a bar, in a hotel, a motel or an apartment, by asphyxiation, in rather central and working-class neighborhoods. Nine were committed in Medellín and two in its surroundings. The latest crime took place on Thursday, April 21. Ten of the victims are men, gay, aged 25 to 62, one is a transgender person. Seven of these crimes, according to ongoing investigations, could be linked. “Most of the victims were abused before they were murdered,” emphasizes Wilson Castañeda, president of Caribe Afirmativo, an association fighting for the rights of LGBT + people, who sees it as a clear sign of both “systematizationand homophobia.
Spectacular advances
Serial killer, sinister campaign of “social cleansing” who recalls horrible hours in Colombia? Rumors are rife in Colombia’s second city, which is rather famous for being open and gay-friendly despite a very conservative national context. Colombia remains, along with Brazil, Mexico and Honduras, one of the countries in the region where there is the most violence against LGBT + people, despite spectacular advances in law and standards since 1980, when which homosexuality has ceased to be a crime in Colombia…