Central America

Harris meets with Guatemala LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS activists

Roundtable took place during vice president’s first overseas trip

Published

8 months ago

June 7, 2021

GUATEMALA CITY — Two members of Guatemalan civil society who work with the LGBTQ community and people with HIV/AIDS participated in a roundtable with Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday.

Visibles Executive Director Daniel Villatoro and Ingrid Gamboa of the Association of Garifuna Women Living with HIV/AIDS are among the 18 members of Guatemalan civil society who participated in the roundtable that took place at a Guatemala City university. Rigoberta Menchú, an indigenous human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, is among those who also took part.

Villatoro is among those who attended a virtual roundtable with Harris on April 27.

“When we met last time, I was so moved to hear about the work that you have been doing, the work that has been about helping women and children, indigenous, LGBTQ, Afro-descendants, people who have long been overlooked or neglected,” said Harris before Monday’s meeting began.

Visibles in a tweet acknowledged it participated in the roundtable.

“Today we participated in a meeting with the vice president of the United States to talk about development opportunities for Guatemala and the search for inclusive justice,” tweeted Visibles. “We, as an organization, spoke about the importance of addressing discrimination and acts of violence towards LGBTIQ+ people.”

Hoy participamos en una reunión con la @VP de Estados Unidos para hablar sobre oportunidades de desarrollo para Guatemala y la búsqueda de justicia inclusiva. Como organización remarcamos la importancia de abordar la discriminación y hechos de violencia hacia las personas LGBTIQ+ pic.twitter.com/cKcTs3qKTL

— Visibles (@visibles_gt) June 8, 2021

Villatoro after the meeting said corruption and “the political crisis in terms of justice with which we live in Guatemala” were two of the issues raised with Harris.

“Impunity does not allow us to live freely,” Villatoro told the Los Angeles Blade. “But combating it will open doors to pursue other necessary actions to give us a better life with more opportunities and with respect for our dignity.”

Harris arrived in Guatemala on Sunday.

She met with President Alejandro Giammattei a couple of hours before the roundtable.

Harris, among other things, announced the creation of a task force with the Justice and State Departments that will fight corruption in Guatemala and in neighboring Honduras and El Salvador. Harris will travel to Mexico City before she returns to D.C.

Harris has previously acknowledged that violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity is among the “root causes” of migration from Guatemala and other Central American countries. State Department spokesperson Ned Price last month noted to the Blade during an interview ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia that protecting LGBTQ migrants and asylum seekers is one of the Biden administration’s global LGBTQ rights priorities.

The Congressional LGBT+ Equality Caucus and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged Harris to raise anti-LGBTQ violence in Central America during her trip.

“Addressing human rights and rule of law as part of the root causes of out-migration in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras is a top priority,” said Meeks in a press release the Congressional LGBT+ Equality Caucus released on Monday. “I am pleased that Vice President Harris will visit Guatemala and encourage her to meet with local civil society leaders, including LGBTQI human rights defenders who often face multiple forms of discrimination at the intersection of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Up Next

US condemns murder of prominent transgender activist in Guatemala

Central America

Global Equality Caucus hires former Salvadoran National Assembly candidate

Erick Iván Ortiz received more than 10,000 votes in 2021

Published

1 day ago

January 25, 2022

Michael K. Lavers

Erick Iván Ortiz (Foto cortesía de Erick Iván Ortiz)

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A group of LGBTQ+ elected officials from around the world that fights discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has hired an openly gay man who ran for the El Salvador National Assembly last year.

Erick Iván Ortiz will oversee the Global Equality Caucus’ work throughout Latin America.

This work will specifically focus on Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Two events that are scheduled to take place in Mexico City in April and Buenos Aires in May will mark the official launch of the Global Equality Caucus’ efforts in the region.

“The idea at the end of the day is to confront the threats from anti-rights groups that can be identified,” Ortiz told the Washington Blade during a recent interview in the Salvadoran capital of San Salvador.

Ortiz, who is a member of Nuestro Tiempo, a new Salvadoran political party, received 10,615 votes when he ran for National Assembly in 2021. Ortiz would have been the first openly gay man elected to the country’s legislative body if he had won.

Editor’s note: The Blade on Monday published a Spanish version of this story that El Salvador Correspondent Ernesto Valle wrote.

Central America

Murdered Honduran Trans activist buried

Thalía Rodríguez shot outside her home on Monday

Published

2 weeks ago

January 14, 2022

Michael K. Lavers

The funeral of Thalía Rodríguez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Reportar sin Miedo)

The Los Angeles Blade on Thursday published a Spanish-language version of this story from Reportar sin Miedo, the Blade’s media partner in Honduras.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A prominent Transgender activist in Honduras who was murdered on Monday has been buried.

Reportar sin Miedo reported activists are among those who attended Thalía Rodríguez’s funeral that took place in Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, on Tuesday.

Rodríguez led Asociación Cozumel Trans, a Honduran trans rights group.

The U.S. Embassy in Honduras, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras and the U.N. Refugee Agency have all condemned Rodríguez’s murder. U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power in a tweet said she was “horrified” by the murders of Rodríguez and Pablo Hernández, a leader in Honduras’ indigenous Lenca community who was killed on Sunday near San Marcos de Caiquín, a municipality in the country’s Lempira department, while he was on his way to church.

I’m horrified by the murders of prominent human rights defenders in Honduras: LGBTQI+ advocate Thalía Rodríguez & Lenca indigenous leader Pablo Hernández. We call for prompt and impartial justice. For the benefit of all Hondurans, these attacks on activists must end. pic.twitter.com/F14wloALBA

— Samantha Power (@PowerUSAID) January 11, 2022

Central America

Prominent trans activist murdered in Honduras

Thalía Rodríguez killed outside her Tegucigalpa home on Monday

Published

2 weeks ago

January 10, 2022

Michael K. Lavers

Thalía Rodríguez at her home. (Photo courtesy of Reportar sin Miedo)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A prominent transgender activist in Honduras was killed on Monday.

Reportar sin Miedo, the Washington Blade’s media partner in Honduras, reported Thalía Rodríguez was shot in the head outside her home in Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital.

Rodríguez, 58, led Asociación Cozumel Trans, a Honduran trans rights group.

Reportar sin Miedo reported Rodríguez ran her own business for nearly three decades until debts, poor sales and the pandemic forced her to close it about a year ago. Reportar sin Miedo interviewed Rodríguez for a feature story on trans Hondurans’ experiences in the country that it published last month.

“Thalía for many years had been fighting to ensure the trans community in Honduras would have rights,” JLo Córdova of Muñecas de Arcoíris, a Honduran trans rights group, told Reportar sin Miedo. “She was a warrior because she always fought for our rights. We condemn and repudiate her murder.” Ferrera, the co-founder of Asociación Cozumel Trans who the Blade interviewed in Tegucigalpa in 2017, also condemned Rodríguez’s murder.

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A post shared by Rihana Ferrera (@rihanaferrera)

The U.S. Embassy in Honduras has also condemned Rodríguez’s murder.

“We mourn the murder of trans activist and leader Thalía Rodríguez,” tweeted the embassy on Tuesday. “We remain committed to ending violence, discrimination, criminalization and stigma against LGBTQI+ people. We call for an immediate and transparent investigation.”

The U.S. Embassy in #Honduras condemns #ThalíaRodríguez‘s murder on Monday in Tegucigalpa. “We remain committed to putting an end to violence, discrimination, criminalization and stigma against LGBTQI+ people. We call for an immediate and transparent investigation.” @WashBlade https://t.co/dgDKDC6gmB

— Michael K. Lavers (He/Él) (@mklavers81) January 11, 2022

Anti-trans violence is commonplace in Honduras, a country in Central America’s Northern Triangle that borders Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Reportar sin Miedo reports Rodríguez is the 400th trans person to be reported killed in Honduras since 2009.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights last year found Honduras responsible for the murder of Vicky Hernández, a trans woman who was killed hours after the 2009 coup that ousted then-President Manuel Zelaya. President-elect Xiomara Castro, who is Zelaya’s wife, is scheduled to take office on Jan. 27.