Killers of trans people face 70 years in jail under reformed Mexico City law
Activist Kenia Cuevas leads a demonstration at the Angel de la Independencia for the “Paola Buenrostro Law”. (Ian Robles/Eyepix Group/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Killing a trans person in Mexico City could now land the perpetrator 70 years in prison, the capital’s legislature has ruled.
Following years of campaigns, the changes, promoted by the ruling Morena Party, were passed by 45 votes to one, making make Mexico City the second of the country’s 32 states to criminalise such killings. Earlier this year, the small state of Nayarit introduced sentences of up to 60 years.
Lawmaker Ana Francis Lopez described the killing of trans people because of their gender – known as transfemicide – as “an extreme manifestation of gender violence and discrimination,” France 24 reported.
The law also makes it possible for a victim’s friends, not just relatives, identify and claim bodies. This is important in a country where some families disown their transgender relatives.
More than 95 per cent of transfemicides are thought to have gone unpunished in 2022 in the country as a whole, according to The Guardian.
The approval of the reforms, known as the Paola Buenrostro Law, in honour of a trans sex worker who was killed by a client in Mexico City in 2016, brought trans people on to the streets to celebrate.
Kenya Cuevas, Buenrostro’s friend spent years campaigning for a law and told The Guardian: “For the first time, we can feel represented before the law, and that violence against us really carries a severe punishment.
“For the first time, I can feel some satisfaction, some peace, after all these long years of work.”
One person took to X/Twitter to describe the new law as “really beautiful”.
No one has ever been charged in connection to Buenrostro’s death.
In June, Claudia Sheinbaum became the first woman – and the first person of the Jewish faith – to be elected president of Mexico.
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