An Arrest Has Been Made in Connection to The Murder of Transexual LGBT Activist
This screenshot form video shows a photo of Mireya Rodriguez Lemus, a member of the Union of Trans Women of Chihuahua.
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Chihuahua state police have made an arrest in connection to the murder of a transgender woman and LGBTQ activist.
Mireya Rodriguez Lemus was killed Sept. 2 in the town of Aquiles Serdan just outside Chihuahua City.
Prosecutors announced Sunday that Ivan Arturo G.P. had been arrested in connection to Rodriguez’s death. A news release said investigators found evidence linking him to the crime.
On Thursday, the U.N. human rights agency called on Mexican authorities to thoroughly investigate Rodriguez’s killing.
The agency said she had been found with signs of a violent death, according to the Associated Press. It said she was at least the seventh rights activist killed in Mexico so far in 2020.
The day after Rodriguez’s death, members of the LGBT community in Juarez staged a protest, including a play decrying violence against transgender individuals, outside of the state police station.
Protesters said Mexican police weren’t taking her death seriously, adding that Rodriguez had received threats but that authorities did not investigate them.
Group members say at least four transgender women have been murdered in Juarez this year, but that police are reluctant to investigate them as hate crimes. They say it’s easier for the police to say it was drug traffickers dressing up dead rivals as women than to admit that a hate crime was committed.
Rodriguez was a member of the Union of Trans Women of Chihuahua.
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