Threats against Bogotá social leader

During the first week of August, threats against the security of LGBTI social leader Leonardo Fabio made nationwide news.

Fabio, who is 25 years old and works with community action groups defending the rights of LGBTI persons, received printed flyers signed by the AUC and Águilas Negras threatening to ‘disappear’ him for being a “marica leader” and a “defender of maricas” and “those who shouldn’t be defended.”

Fabio was later attacked and beaten, and although he requested assistance from the National Office of Protection, the Office’s approval process will last at least three months. Currently, local police are conducting visits to verify his safety. However, while under this protection, Fabio has found new pamphlets at his home threatening him for having gone to the authorities. The week of August 8^th, he was attacked by the same perpetrators as before. This time, he was loaded into a car, robbed of all his possessions and left in a field in Suba.

This situation reveals the concerning level of vulnerability that all people recognized as LGBTI leaders experience across Colombia. Fabio’s plight is all the more concerning given that he lives in the city where the government has the greatest ability to protect the safety of social leaders. The facts of his case make clear that not even in Bogotá can the authorities guarantee the safety of these leaders, who constantly suffer threats and attacks in retaliation for their human rights work.

The Caribbean Region: violence and resistance

The vulnerability of LGBTI Colombians and the lack of protections for this population are on full display in the Caribbean region, where two LGBTI persons were killed during August.

The first victim was reported during the afternoon of August 1^st. Ariel López Romero, a 43-year-old gay man, was found with his throat cut at his house in Soledad, Atlántico department. López was a language teacher and gave training workshops for the LGBT community at the Casa de Paz de Soledad through the organization Caribe Afirmativo.

According to Caribe Afirmativo, López had not previously received any threats. The group noted an increase in homicides against gay men in their homes, along with a general increase of violence against LGBTI persons in the Caribbean.

López’s homicide is the eighth recorded killing of an LGBTI person since 2018, according to the organization’s count. The organization’s presence in the region allows it to maintain a registry of these crimes, which would otherwise go unreported due to a lack of social organizations and of state action.

Daniela Martínez, a 53-year-old trans woman, was killed on August 21^st in the town of Cicuco, in the south of Bolivar department. Her homicide, in which three persons accosted her on the street and beat her with shoes, stones and other blunt objects, generated outrage in the community. The attack left her seriously injured; she ultimately died of wounds to her head.

According to Caribe Afirmativo, who made the initial report of her death, Martínez had also been attacked in public in May, when she was tied up and burned by her assailants. The organization contacted Colombian authorities to inform them of the facts of the case and ensure that the attack is investigated as part of a pattern of cruel and systematic violence.

Rights in Danger? Proposed law would affect same-sex marriage

Senator María del Rosario Guerra of the Centro Democrático party proposed a law that would extend the right of conscientious objection for religious, philosophical, ethical or moral objections to those acting in the name of legal persons or public institutions. This proposal, which will be debated in the coming months, represents a particular danger in cases wherein a notary could refuse to confirm same-sex marriages.

The proposal will generate a fierce debate in Congress, considering that the law would cover conscientious objection not only in this area, but also in disputed cases of abortion and euthanasia.