Young lesbian couple tortured, raped and dismembered because they were gay
Nohemi Medina Martinez and Yulizsa Ramirez were visiting family in Mexico when they were murdered. (Facebook/ Nohemi Medina Martinez)
A lesbian couple from Texas have been tortured, murdered and dismembered in Mexico, before being dumped on the street in rubbish bags.
Nohemi Medina Martinez and Yulizsa Ramirez, both 28, lived in El Paso, Texas, but were visiting family in Ciudad Juárez, a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
According to El Diario, the couple were last seen by their family in Mexico on Saturday (15 January) and their bodies were discovered the next day.
Authorities believe the women had been tortured and their bodies were discovered dismembered in rubbish bags on the Juárez-Porvenir highway, many miles apart.
The Specialised Prosecutor for Women (FEM) said that an investigation was ongoing into where the women were in their final hours, but no arrests have been made.
Karen Arvizo, director of the Chihuahua Committee for Sexual Diversity, told Presentes, a news outlet focusing on LGBT+ rights in Latin America, said that Martinez and Ramirez were also sexually assaulted.
She said: “It was an exaggeratedly violent crime, and due to the circumstances it seems that it was a hate crime because there were sexual assaults.
“That is why we are considering it as not only two femicides, but a hate crime based on sexual orientation.”
The governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos, said in a statement that the crimes would “not go unpunished”, but Arvizo is concerned that this may in fact be the case.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she added: “The concern is that authorities will absolutely do nothing.
“We feel like we are treated like second-class citizens and that we really don’t matter.”
According to their social media profiles, the lesbian couple got married in July 2021. They leave behind three children.
Their deaths mark the 11th and 12th murders of women in the region this month alone, and their bodies were discovered shortly before a meeting was to be held on tackling violence on the border.
On Monday (17 January), two more women were discovered in bags in the same region. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was found alive and crying, but tragically later died. They have not yet been identified.
