Argentina Court Convicts Former officers of Hate Crimes Against Trans People

"Judges overseeing a high-profile human rights trial in Argentina convicted 11 former officials of crimes against humanity on Tuesday, in the first case to focus on the former military dictatorship's overlooked practice of committing sexual violence against transgender women," the AP reported from Buenos Aires

"In the highly anticipated verdict, 10 defendants were sentenced to life in prison and one to 25 years in prison for their roles in a scheme of violent repression that included killing, torture, sexual violence and the abduction of children born in captivity, among other alleged crimes that took place across four clandestine detention centers in the province of Buenos Aires. The judges acquitted one former official, reports the AP.

"The trial at the court in La Plata, a southern suburb of the capital, spanned nearly four years and added new details and insight to previously chronicled atrocities, deepening the nation's understanding of its traumatic history. Transgender plaintiffs took the witness stand for the first time in a series of chilling hearings that put a spotlight both on the suffering of the transgender community and on the widespread tactic of sexual violence under the right-wing dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983

Tuesday's trial involved 600 victims and testimonies from hundreds of witnesses that dredged up accounts of sexual abuse specifically targeting transgender women, as well as cases of soldiers stealing babies from their detained mothers before handing them over for adoption to members of the dictatorship and their loyalists. A former police doctor who oversaw the births of women in captivity was among those who received a life sentence.

The current government denied the existence of systemic transphobia and hate. In a statement it said that the state was in a war against gorillas and people died on both sides, igniting massive protests.

Amancay Diana Sacayan

In memory of trans activist Amancay Diana Sacayan. Diana was one of the first trans-Argentinians to change her legal documents. She was murdered on October 11, 2015, just one month after the current laws protecting the transgender community that she campaigned for were enacted.

Indepth: Víctor Hugo Robles 2012 interview of Diana Sacayan.

Gabriel David Marino, was found guilty of gender hate and violence against the trans community and was given a life sentence by unanimous decision, reported Agencia Presentes. He was the first person to be convicted and sentenced under the Hate crime laws that Diana Sacayan had campaigned for.

Marino was denied parole in 2020 when he asked to be released during the pandemic.

(AP)