Another Gay Rights Activist Murdered in Honduras
More than 200 killed since 2009
A leading gay-rights activist in Honduras was strangled to death this week, adding to the already alarming violence against LGBT people in the Central American country.
Rene MartĂnez, 40, went missing on Wednesday after leaving his home in San Pedro-
(pic from ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
Sula’s ChamelecĂ³n neighborhood. On Friday, relatives identified his body at the morgue.
The U.S. embassy in Honduras described MartĂnez as “a leader in the LGBTI community… and a rising political figure in Honduras.”
“We offer our condolences to his friends and family,” it added, “and expect a full and thorough investigation into the circumstances of his death.”
MartĂnez was president of Comunidad Gay Sampredrana, and worked to combat the violence that plagues the country’s LGBT community.
Human rights groups estimate more than 215 LGBT Hondurans have been killed because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity since the 2009 and 2015.
Threats can come from any direction: Shortly after the 2009 coup d’Ă©tat, activist Walter Trochez (above) was reportedly assassinated by the new regime for organizing dissent.
In 2012, journalist Erick Alexander MartĂnez was tortured and strangled to death just a few weeks after being selected as the first openly gay candidate to run for Congress in Honduras. (Prosecutors insisted his murder was a crime of passion by a drug-dealing boyfriend.)
Just this past January, Paola Barraza, a trans woman and human-rights advocate, was shot to death outside her home in ComayagĂ¼ela. “I’ve been imprisoned on many occasions. I’ve suffered torture and sexual violence because of my activism, and I’ve survived many assassination attempts,” activist Donny Reyes told Index on Censorship.
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