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UN: El Salvador Must Investigate Crimes Against LGBT

by Reuters

   SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR --

   An uptick in deadly violence against transgender women in El Salvador
   prompted the United Nations on Friday to call for an investigation into
   crimes against sexual minorities in the conservative Central American
   country.

   So far this year, seven transgender women have been killed in El
   Salvador, according to the Geneva-based Office of the U.N. High
   Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Local LGBT organizations put the
   death toll at 17 through the first four months of the year.

   In 2016, at least 25 transgender women were killed over the course of
   the entire year, according to the local organizations.

   Karla Avelar, executive director of the Association for Communicating
   and Training Trans Women, poses for a picture at her office in San
   Salvador, El Salvador, May 12, 2017.

   Activist threatened

   Leading transgender activist Karla Avelar said local gang members have
   demanded money and made threats that forced her to flee her home six
   times in the past two years.

   Avelar, who leads a local trans-rights organization, said in an
   interview she has no faith that local authorities can protect her from
   gangs who routinely demand extortion payments from residents and
   businesses.

   "Criminals operate within the same institutions of government. So how
   can you entrust your life to them? How can you entrust your security to
   these institutions?" Avelar said.

   Avelar, 40, is a finalist for the 2017 Martin Ennals Award, an
   international prize for human rights activists, but said the gang
   members have already sought to extort some of the future prize money if
   she wins.

   "I won't wait for them to kill me," Avelar said. "And how am I going to
   give them something I don't even have?" The Salvadoran activist
   declined to identify the names or gang affiliation of the men who
   threatened her, or where she now lives, for fear of retaliation.

   "We urge the government of El Salvador to take urgent measures to
   ensure the protection of Ms. Avelar and other (LGBT) activists and
   individuals who are under threat," said OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina
   Shamdasani, adding that authorities should investigate what she
   described as "hate crimes."

   The Salvadoran attorney general's office did not immediately respond to
   a request for comment. Last year, El Salvador registered 81.7 homicides
   per 100,000 residents, one of the highest murder rates in the world.