Newsgroups: soc.motss
From: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk (Diane Bailey)
Subject: Amnesty Investigates as More Gays Murdered in Mexico
Reply-To: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 13:29:00 +0000


Amnesty Investigates as More Gays Murdered in Mexico

Mexican gay groups have called upon Amnesty International to take
up the cases of two gay men being held by police in Mexico on
suspicion of multiple murders of AIDS workers, despite no
apparent evidence to link them with the crimes.

The head of the Mexican research department of the London based
human rights organisation is understood to be investigating their
situation in Mexico this week.

As the two men remained in detention, another in the apparent
series of murderous attacks was committed.  0n August 10, a
22-year-old gay activist became the latest victim in a wave of
anti-gay violence in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico.
Martin Balesca Dominguez was severely beaten and stabbed many
times by unidentified attackers, who Ieft him for dead near the
town of Arriaga. The victim, a member of the AIDS organisation
Piscis de Arriaga, is in critical condition in a local hospital,
according to the latest information from Colectivo Sol, Mexico's
largest Iesbian and gay group.

A dozen other gay men and nine prostitutes have been assassinated
in Chiapas in the past year, most of them shot with high-calibre
weapons. None of the cases has yet been solved by local police,
who consider these murders to be crimes of passion or vengeance
within the gay community, despite clear signs of professional
marksmanship and the striking similarity among thc cases. Local
gay leaders report increased harassment by police as a result of
the publicity surrounding the violence.

Leaders of Circulo Cultural Gay, a Mexico City gay organization,
recently presented the National Commission on Human Rights with
documentation of the assassinations in Chiapas. They demanded an
investigation by the Commission of what they call the "systematic
and often silent genocide suffered by the gay and lesbian
population of the country." In an open letter to the Governor of
Chiapas published in the newspaper La Jornada, many of the
country's leading intellectuals pleaded for a more thorough
investigation of the crimes in order to bring the murderers to
justice.

Violence against homosexuals and transvestites has been rampant
in other parts of Mexico as well. On June 18, a young
transvestite was beaten to death on the streets of Oaxaca. Three
gay men were murdered in Mexico City on July 13, including Dr.
Francisco Estrada, founder and president of Grupo Ave de Mexico,
an AIDS prevention organization. And two gay men were found bound
and shot to death in Guadalajara on August 9.

Demonstrations have been organized by gay groups in front of
Mexican consulates and embassies in the United States and in
Europe, in an attempt to force the Mexican government to act to
stop the homophobic violence throughout the country. Enrique
Asis, Latin American Coordinator of the International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission was widely quoted when he said:
"It's time for the Mexican government to take seriously the
epidemic of anti-gay violence throughout the country and to force
the police to fully investigate the murders of gay men".

The response of the Mexican government has been to set up a
special investigative commission, but local police are still
detaining, and apparently seeking to place the blame upon gay men
that the gay community are convinced are quite unconnected with
the crimes.

For further information contact Enrique Asis at the International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Tel: +1 415 255 8680,
Fax: +1 415 255 8662, or Colectivo Sol, Fax: +52 5 605 8299.

Diane Bailey
dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk