Vicky Hernández in an illustration.
Vicky Hernández was found dead on a street in San Pedro Sula on the morning of June 29, 2009. She was dressed as she had left her home, with a skirt and heels.
She was a transsexual woman who, although used to fleeing from the persecution of the police, during the early hours of that day did not manage to run when several got out of the cars in which they were patrolling the city.
The two friends who accompanied her, who were also murdered days later, said after finding her dead, shot in the head, that when the police appeared they all ran in different directions, but Vicky stayed behind.
He was the first of at least 15 trans people killed during the coup in Honduras.
Eleven years later, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights agreed to study his case and what it defines will depend on the establishment of international jurisprudence for the protection of the transsexual community.
“We have been feeling for years that we are part of that quota that is allowed to kill without the State doing something.
As if we were disposable, they kill us and there is no justice, ”says Indyra Mendoza, coordinator of Cattrachas, a human rights organization that keeps statistics in Honduras on crimes against LGTBI people.
From 2009 to July 2020 they registered 118 violent deaths of transgender people in the country.
Most were shot, others were strangled, stoned, stabbed and others who died with machetes.
Many were sex workers, in the registry there are also waitresses, students, domestic workers, garbage collectors.
There were several children under the age of 17, none of them were over 34. Vicky was 26 when she was killed and like her, who was found lying in the street, many have been found.
They have also appeared in streams, wastelands, roads, mountains.
Most in public places.
"They don't even hide their bodies because they know that no one is going to investigate," laments Mendoza by phone.
For the lawyer Angelita Baeyens, of the human rights organization Robert F. Kennedy, that the case is in the Inter-American Court is the opportunity, even without knowing the final decision, for the State to listen to the claims of a population that has been violated in many ways.
“It is time for the discrimination that transgender people have been victims to be recognized.
Not only because of the physical violence, we must also talk about the violation of almost all their rights, ”he says.
Honduras does not even allow the name to be changed.
Vicky's death certificate shows a man's.
“They also discriminated against her after she died.
We want that now, no matter how long it has been, there is justice ”, claims Tatiana, Vicky's sister.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the presentation of the case before the Court indicates that there is evidence such as the fact that the streets were under total control of the security forces when they assassinated them to conclude that there was direct responsibility of the Honduran State.
It also indicates that Vicky's crime is framed within prejudice violence based on her gender identity and expression.
The IACHR reiterates that since it is the first file of a trans woman killed by security agents, the Court may recognize other acts of violence that occurred in the context of the coup in Honduras.
After the first day of the court hearing, on Wednesday, one of the members of the Cattrachas organization, which has followed the case and is part of the process, received threats.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights in Honduras had to speak out and ask the State to guarantee the safety of the victims and those who defend them.
In six months, the Court must announce whether it condemns the country for the extrajudicial execution of Vicky and guarantees the protection of people who, because they are transsexuals, have to hide from the police.