Police officials attending to the lifeless body of Paola Bracho. She was stabbed 17 times and murdered on Wednesday by 8 transwomen. CREDIT: Osvaldo Duarte/94 FM
Brazil holds the highest murder and violence rate against transpeople in the world according to Grupo Gay Da Bahia.
Nearly 1,600 Brazilian transpeople were killed in hate motivated violence over the past five years. Grupo Gay Da Bahia said a gay or transgender person is killed almost every day. Most crimes against transwomen and LGB community are not recorded or reported, so the rate is significantly underestimated due to misgendering and constant mis-identification of victims.
The latest victim’s name was Paola Bracho, she was murdered with at least 17 knife stabbings and blows to the head! The story of Paola Bracho shows the violence and hate culture in Brazil, where usually the victims are transgender women, in this case transgender women are the suspects/perpetrators, allegedly.
Her murder took place at 1:30am Brazilian time, in Rua João Cândido do Câmara, Dourados on Wednesday the 22 of March 2017.
There are unconfirmed reports that the crime might involve eight other transwomen and a dispute about sex work. The motif of the murder is unclear at the moment, so the information below is just speculations by the people around.
Eyewitnesses said they were with Paola when some transwomen by the name Rahine and Kimberly asked to speak to Paola privately. The two women were accompanied by six other transwomen.
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- CREDIT: Adilson Domingos
As soon as the victim left with the ladies for the alleged conversation. A fight ensued, the 8 women were armed with knives and iron rods as they viciously attacked Paola.
Paola was murdered with at least 17 stab wounds, 14 of them in the back and three in the neck, according to the police. In addition, the victim had trauma blows to the head.
Few weeks ago there was another murder and torture of a transwoman, Dandara dos Santos in broad daylight.
Francisca Ferreira de Vasconcelos showing a photo of her daughter, Dandara dos Santos, who was killed Feb. 15.CREDIT: Mariana Parente/O POVO
She was beaten, tortured, shot, then bashed in the head with a big stone whilst being filmed and laughed at by the perpetrators who were all young men.
The crime drew the world’s attention to the violence and discrimination suffered by transgender people in Brazil.
Dandara dos Santos was killed in Fortaleza, in the northeastern state of Ceará, on Feb. 15, the case quickly gained international attention as she cried for mercy in this video footage below:
The police arrested 3 teenagers and 2 men in connection with the crime after reviewing the video, they are in search of others involved in the murder.
“….this repulsive and unacceptable crime….the victim dandara dos Santos, in fortaleza, we are determined to identify and punish every criminal involved. ” Camilo Santana, the governor of Ceará, wrote in a Facebook post.
Many argue that Brazil holds high rate of violence and crime against women in general as the graph above shows. That it is not just transwomen being murdered. But the hate crimes against transwomen in Brazil are undeniable. Transwomen are rejected by family and society. They have no means to survive, so they result in unsafe professions to stay alive.
Being a member of the LGBT community in Brazil is incredibly dangerous and the life expectancy of the community is also very low due to lack of education, poverty, religion and crime.
By Iris W., Miss saHHara
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2nEhAgs, http://bit.ly/2o0q9TN