Cristina Cantillo Martínez
7 Dec 2021
Santa Marta, Magdalena (Colombia)
Shot
TDoR list ref: tgeu/tdor2022/07-Dec-2021/Cristina Cantillo Martínez
Cristina was shot by a hitman while she was sitting in the terrace of her home. She was a community leader who had asked for protection after being threatened.
Cristina Cantillo, the renowned leader and social activist of the LGBTI + community in Santa Marta, was murdered on Tuesday night while she was sitting on the terrace of her house [at Carrera 60 No. 10-60] in the Ondas del Caribe neighborhood.
The leader had received death threats and several attacks against her and her family, as a result of which the local government authorized her special protection through the National Protection Unit, UNP. Last year Castillo had asked for protection after suffering an attack in which her brother was injured.
Human rights defenders condemned her assassination and claimed that the social leader was not listened to by the local authorities. According to the Samarian leader Lerbes Dimas, city life is not respected and today a whole community mourns the loss of a feisty, affective woman with a social sense.
"They turned off the voice of a leader, of a colleague. Cristina did not want to die and asked a thousand times for a security scheme different from the one she had. She had denounced the fact that they were going to assassinate her, but it was the voice of a trans woman, which no one wanted to hear" Dimas expressed.
Cristina had reported serious extortion situations against trans women who worked in prostitution in the Mamatoco sector, also serious complaints against the National Police. In her social networks, the activist had made a recent publication in which she expressed solidarity with the families affected by the fire in the public market of Santa Marta that occurred at dawn this Tuesday.
According to the authorities, initial reports indicate that a hitman arrived at the door of Castillo's house and shot him several times. Despite being taken to a health center she died.
The same day two other trans people - Maní and La Divaza - were also killed in Colombia.
In February 2022 Darinel José Posada Tovar was charged with her murder.
Little more than two months after the murder of the LGBTI leader Cristina Cantillo , which occurred in December 2021 in Santa Marta, the Prosecutor's Office has charged the suspected hitman who entered her house and shot her.
The suspect is Darinel José Posada Tovar, alias Duende, who was charged with the crimes of aggravated homicide and fabrication, carrying or aggravated possession of firearms and remanded in custody.
Cantillo, a trans woman who defended the rights of the LGBTI population in Magdalena , was murdered around 9:30 at night on December 7, while she was with her relatives. That night a man entered her home, which was located in the Luis Carlos Galán neighborhood of that city, and shot her several times with a 9-millimeter pistol, fatally wounding her.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, during the investigation, interviews were taken and photographic examinations carried out that allowed alias Duende to be identified as the alleged perpetrator of the crime. In addition, it was shown that the man was apparently a hitman for the criminal group 'los Pachenca', active in the department of Magdalena.
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/12/11/colombia-trans-non-binary-murdered/
https://www.elcolombiano.com/colombia/asesinato-de-cristina-cantillo-y-dos-mujeres-trans-LF16136049
https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/413121-asesinato-christina-cantillo-lideresa-social-colombia
https://twitter.com/redcomunitariat/status/1468742985831563267
https://twitter.com/walkinstownd12/status/1468580244349243406
https://twitter.com/Caribeafirmativ/status/1468554153668583434
https://twitter.com/carlosecaicedo/status/1468584498371641351
https://twitter.com/AlfonsoCampoM/status/1468628441016807424
