Colombia regrets the murder of a trans leader who had denounced several attempts against her life

The murder of social leader Christina Cantillo Martínez, an activist for sexual rights and the LGBTI community, in the city of Santa Marta, department of Magdalena, has profoundly shocked Colombia. This homicide was preceded by several attacks from which she had been unharmed, according to what she denounced repeatedly, when she warned about the flaws in her State security scheme.

The attack occurred on Tuesday, when Cantillo, who was the director of the NGO Fundación Calidad Humana was approached by two men on a motorcycle, while she was talking with her family at the door of her house, located in the Ondas del Caribe neighborhood. The man at the back of the motorcycle fired multiple shots at her, until she fell to the ground. Those present took her to the Los Nogales Clinic, where she died, describes RT.

Cantillo’s work focused on community work against gender violence and the defense of the rights of trans women, mainly sex workers. According to the local press, the leadership that she exercised in Santa Marta was «strong», which is why armed groups in the area had threatened her and she had suffered several attacks. For this reason, the National Protection Unit of the Ministry of the Interior had granted her an individual protection measure, which was insufficient.

The social leader constantly spoke on her Facebook account about the doubts she had of the effectiveness of her protection scheme by the State. In addition, she strongly questioned the inaction of the police forces in the face of reports of threats and intimidation against local activists by criminal structures and drug traffickers that operate in those localities.

What does the Colombian Police say?

The Santa Marta Police Commander, Jesús de los Reyes, reported in a video that a «prominent prosecutor in special cases» was appointed to handle the case and that the Technical Investigation Corps and the Elite Corps of the National Police were also involved in the investigation.

Until now, the authorities do not know the whereabouts of those responsible for the crime against the activist. However, they are analyzing evidence and records from security cameras.

The reactions

This murder has generated reactions among local authorities and national and international human rights organizations.

On his Twitter account, the governor of the department, Carlos Caicedo, made several publications where he regretted what happened and strongly urged the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, to reinforce security in the area.

Caicedo argued that the «inability» of the Police, under the command of De los Reyes is «unsustainable» and asked for him to be relieved from the Police. In the same way, he asked the president to fight crime in Santa Marta «with the same diligence» that he sent the authorities to suppress a protest at the Public Services Company of that city. «We demand that the Prosecutor’s Office act against criminal groups that in his government (Iván Duque) are reconquering the territory in the midst of a silence that becomes an accomplice (to this situation)»,  he said.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Santa Marta, Virna Johnson, rejected the homicide, asserted that from her Office they had activated the care route and clarified that the protection corresponded to the agency of the Ministry of the Interior. «We ask the authorities for results and justice», she wrote.

The Ombudsman’s Office also spoke out to demand «that those responsible be investigated and brought to justice».

In his Facebook account, the human rights defender Lerber Dimas published a text in which he stated that in Santa Marta «life is not respected» and that the community mourns «the life of a trans woman, a fighter, affectionate and with a social purpose».

«They silenced the voice of a leader, of a colleague. Cristina did not want to die and she asked a thousand times for a different security scheme. She had denounced that they were going to kill her, but it was the voice of a trans woman, which no one wanted to hear», he added.

The United Nations (UN) also lamented «the violent death» of Cantillo and asked «to fully investigate this attack (…) and its connection with previous attacks against her, in order to clarify the facts and identify those responsible for committing and masterminding the crime”.

According to the registry of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), with Cantillo, 162 social leaders have been assassinated this year and 1,276 since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016.

What are the immediate actions in Colombia?

The governor of the Department of Magdalena reported that he held an extraordinary Security Council in which the mayors, authorities and national entities participated «to coordinate strategies to guarantee security in the Sierra Nevada and the rest of Magdalena».

At this meeting, he described it as «unheard of» that, although Cantillo had the protection of the specialized unit, she had been «murdered because they left her vulnerable at night». «What kind of security is that, that only protects during office hours? There are no guarantees of protection for the country’s social leaders», he stated.

The government asked the Ministry of the Interior to hold a territorial work group to assess the risk level around social leaders and human rights defenders of Santa Marta and Magdalena.

The local authorities offered a reward of 80 million pesos (about 20 thousand dollars) for information that leads to the capture of the persons that committed and masterminded the crime.

The notices that were not heard

The defender of the rights of the LGBTI community in Colombia had filed several complaints about the attacks against her and had posted videos of her networks to support them.

A few days before her death, on December 4, she wrote on her Facebook wall about a «mishap» in a car that was transporting her with her bodyguards. «It was not an attack, although the authorities do not rule out that some malicious person had done something to the vehicle when I was out of my house, at night», she explained.

On October 22, she also reported that two hit men who tried to attack her, outside her house, were detained by the Metropolitan Police with the help of the community, who burned the motorcycle in which they were traveling. «Thank God they could not end my life at this time», she wrote on that occasion.

Regarding the attempted lynching of the aggressors and the burning of the motorcycle, she added: «This act of the community is the beginning of just how tired they are of the authorities, due to the lack of security and in the face of the wave of homicides registered in the city of Santa Marta and the Magdalena».

Already in April of this year, Cantillo had suffered an attack, from which she was unharmed, but her brother, Luis Felipe Cantillo, was wounded. On that occasion, the high adviser for Peace and the Post-Conflict of Colombia, Vilbrum Tovar, asked the State security agencies and the National Police to provide security to her.

In November 2020, her car was hit several times in the middle of a shooting, for which she drew attention to the characteristics of the vehicle assigned by the National Protection Unit that, according to her, was not «suitable» to protect a social leader that «runs through the Magdalena and places with a high rate of violence, where I put my life at risk».