An advocacy group for transgender people claims that a trans woman has been murdered just after she was deported back from the United States to her birthplace of El Salvador.
According to a statement by Asociación Aspidh Arcoiris Trans (ASPIDH) for NBC News, the 31-year-old woman fled El Salvador to the U.S. with the migrant caravan after she received multiple threats against her life.
Mónica Linares, director of ASPIDH, had known Camila Díaz Córdova for at least a decade and reported that she often received threats, including documented cases reported to El Salvador’s National Civil Police in 2014.
Díaz Córdova petitioned for asylum while in the U.S. but was deported back to El Salvador sometime four to five months ago, Linares told the outlet.
She was reported missing by a friend in late January and ASPIDH discovered she had been admitted to a hospital in San Salvador following an attack.
Díaz Córdova was found with multiple injuries Carretera de Oro above the municipality of Soyapango, The Washington Blade reported. It is unclear what happened to her.
Díaz Córdova died in the hospital several days later on Feb. 3.
“Camila’s death makes the transgender community in El Salvador feel insecure,” Linares told NBC News. “There’s a failure of protection in El Salvador and a failure of protection in the United States. Camila had a lot of evidence, and she still was not given asylum.”
The Hill has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world and LGBTQ people are particularly at risk.
Díaz Córdova was the second trans woman killed in El Salvador this month after a woman named Lolita was killed with a machete on Feb. 8, The Washington Blade Reported.
El Salvador’s National Civil Police and the country’s attorney general reportedly have not classified either murder as a hate crime.
The United Nations in 2017 called for an investigation into crimes against sexual minorities after seven transgender women were killed in El Salvador although local advocates said the number was likely much higher, NBC noted.
At least 25 transgender women were killed in 2016, local organizations told the outlet.
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