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Cynthia Nicole, a leading Honduras transgender rights defender, was murdered on January 9, 2009 in Barrio Guaserique in Comayaguela, a town just outside the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. Unknown assailants drove by and shot at Nicole, who received three shots in the chest and one in the head.
The Human Rights Watch is calling attention to the recent rash of violence and murder Transgender perpatrated against Hondurans. Juliana Cano Nieto, a researcher with the LGBT Rights Program at HRW, highlighted the need for the authorities, “to find and prosecute the perpetrators of this and previous attacks against the trans community. If authorities fail to investigate attacks, victims have no reason to report them – and are ready targets for reprisals."
"The transgender community is terrified," said Indyra Mendoza, director of the Honduran lesbian and feminist group Cattrachas.
And, they are terrified with good reason based on a catalog of violence against LGBT persons that has gone unchecked by the Honduran government. According to the HRW, on October 30th, an attacker killed Yasmin, a transgender sex worker and Nicole's colleage. The next day an attacker shot Bibi, another transgender sex worker. On December 17th, an attacker stabbed Noelia, a third transgender sex worker, 14 times.
In addition to these attacks, members of the police assaulted a transgender activist doing HIV/AIDS outreach work in Tegucigalpa on December 20th.
Below are some of the more severe and shocking statements from a March 2008 report on Honduras that the U.S. State Department concluded.
"There are no discriminatory laws based on sexual orientation, but in practice social discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation was widespread.
"Representatives of sexual diversity rights NGOs asserted that their members were killed, beaten, and subjected to other mistreatment by security authorities.
"Sexual diversity rights groups asserted that security forces, government agencies, and private employers engaged in anti-gay discriminatory hiring practices.
"These groups also reported intimidation, fear of reprisal, and police corruption made gay and lesbian victims of abuse reluctant to file charges or proceed with prosecutions.
"The sexual diversity rights organisation the Lesbian-Gay Rainbow Association of Comayaguela reported that between January and March, seven homosexuals were killed due to their sexuality by unknown actors and that a number of gay persons had fled the country out of fear of social and security force persecution.
"On March 18, police beat and detained Donny Reyes, the treasurer of the Lesbian-Gay Rainbow Association of Comayaguela.
"Police then reportedly put Reyes in a jail cell with 57 gang members who raped and beat him. Reyes filed a formal complaint and was subsequently harassed by police."
