Remembering Our Dead

TDoR 2017 / 2017 / August / 12 / Ayelén Gómez ("Lisa")

Ayelén Gómez ("Lisa")

Age 31 (born 29 Jun 1987)

12 Aug 2017
San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucuman (Argentina)
Asphyxiated

TDoR list ref: tgeu/18-Aug-2017/Eyelen

Ayelén's body was found near a sports club showing signs of extreme violence after she had gone out to visit a friend but never arrived. She had died from asphyxiation.

Two employees of the club, located in the 9 de Julio Park in the provincial capital, found her under the southern tribune of Lawn Tennis. They hung up advertising posters, before a rugby match, when they found her body. Ayelén lay naked.

The local press spoke first of "a person" murdered and then "a travesti." After a few hours and after identification of the body by her mother it was learned that the victim was Ayelén Gómez, a trans woman from Ranchillos, a commune 24 km from San Miguel de Tucumán.

In that same city, on April 19, 2012, she had been arrested, raped and abused by two policemen from the second section of San Miguel. Ayelén had denounced these events in an interview as soon as [she] regained [her] freedom.

On the third anniversary of her death Ayelén's sister Yohana published an open letter calling for justice.

Open letter from Ayelén Gómez's sister, 3 years after her Transfemicide:

Hello, my name is Yohana Gómez, I am the sister of Ayelén Gómez, a young trans girl who was murdered on August 12, 2017 in the vicinity of the Lawn tennis stands in the 9 de Julio park. Today 3 years after her brutal murder I want to remember the request for justice for her crime.

I also want to remember and tell you a bit about Ayelén. She was a girl, and a fighter throughout her life history, it was not easy for her from a very young age. She lived through very difficult times and had a domestic accident where she was left with a disability in her hand.

Later in her teens, she went through discrimination on many occasions not being able to have the opportunity to have a good job, the only job she could go to was selling cosmetics, and she also liked to sew and made her own clothes. She also made them us for us, her siblings.

She liked playing with the boys very much and was very affectionate, always looking out for her family. She always took good care of her younger siblings and that is one of the things that I remember the most, so I will always be involved in the fight to demand justice. Lisa - that's what we called her in the family - I tell you that we miss her so much today. It is the third year without her and how it hurts to know there will be many more. I believe that the only consolation to alleviate so much pain is that justice is done for Ayelén Gómez's femicide. Let the true culprits pay, today I am missing a very large part in my life, my LISA, my sister.

Only in dreams she visits me, can I see her and hug her, I miss her a lot, that is why I ask for solidarity with the trans girls who continue in their fight for a dignified and peaceful life. That they are respected. To the families, they want them to help them because they don't exist like them. Today it's my turn to live without my sister, some murderers took her from me, who by their decision ended her life and they have no idea of the damage they did, the pain they left behind.

3 years without Ayelén Gómez but you will always be here now and always justice for Ayelén”.

On 30th November 2020 a permanent memorial to Ayelén was erected near the club on Gobernador del Campo Avenue in the form of a red bench:

Next Monday, the Municipality of San Miguel de Tucumán will inaugurate a red bench to pay tribute to Ayelén Gómez, a young trans woman who was found murdered on August 12, 2017 near the stands of the Tucuman Lawn Tennis Club, in Parque 9 de July."

As reported by the Municipality, the ceremony will take place at 10.30, on Gobernador del Campo Avenue, near the club. Municipal officials and family members of Ayelén will participate.

The event is part of the public policies carried out by the municipality to raise awareness and make femicides visible, and of the activities organized by the "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women", which was commemorated on November 25.

In September 2021 Adrián Miranda admitted Ayelén's murder, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for "simple homicide" (the judge refused to consider the charge of transfemicide). However, he may not have acted alone - and if that was the case the other alleged perpetrators remain at large.

There were four years of waiting until today when a conviction was finally achieved for the transfemicide of Ayelén Gómez that occurred in August 2017.

In a short trial, Adrián Miranda, the only defendant in the crime, admitted having murdered Ayelén and reached a deal the prosecution which established a sentence of 12 years in prison.

“We consider that the investigation was really flawed. The DNA test gives unknown perpetrators and we have the hypothesis that Miranda acted with someone else,” said Martín González, a lawyer for the human rights organization ANDHES, who acted as plaintiffs in the case.

In a final insult, the ruling by the judge deadnamed Ayelén.

La Sala Conclusional I condenó a 12 años de prisión a Adrián Miranda por el delito de “Homicidio Simple” de Ayelén Gómez. Sin embargo, en la sentencia no se respeta la Ley de Identidad de Género y se nombra en masculino a testigas y Ayelén en 14 oportunidades

Abrimos hilo...
— ANDHES (@ANDHES_org) October 18, 2021

Concluding Chamber I sentenced Adrián Miranda to 12 years in prison for the crime of “Simple Homicide” of Ayelén Gómez. However, the ruling does not respect the Gender Identity Law and witnesses and Ayelén are named in masculine 14 times.

ANDHES presented an Appeal for Clarification that is based mainly on the fact that the Court has failed to comply with its own resolution of June 2020 in which it orders the change of face.

There it had resolved to "REPLACE the name of the victim (...) by the first name regarding their self-perception in accordance with the LIG, local and international regulations, rulings and treaties of constitutional roots." In other words, to respect the name of Ayelén.

Finally, the sentence was given without processing the exhortations requested on 09/29 by ANDHES so that:

That the investigation of the case be continued with a transvestite / trans perspective

The creation and implementation of an Investigation Protocol for Transfemicides and Transvesticides.

The creation of a Specific Registry that includes the violent deaths of trans / transvestite women.

The effective application of the Micaela Law.

ANDHES requests that justice act with a trans perspective, strictly complying with the LIG and giving rise to exhortations, which are fundamental to guarantee the duty of non-repetition and due diligence #JusticiaPorAyelen #FueTransfemicidio