Eliza Cortez ("Eli")
Age 2413 Feb 2024
Teapa, Tabasco (Mexico)
Shot
Eli was a stylist, but had to supplant her income with sex work. Her body was found with gunshot wounds near the Villahermosa-Cárdenas highway.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico. Elisa Cortez was a 24-year-old trans woman. On Tuesday, February 13, her body was found with gunshot wounds in an area of rancherías on the Villahermosa-Cárdenas highway section, in Tabasco, a state in the southeast of Mexico. Elisa was originally from Tenosique and according to press information she worked as a sex worker.
Media outlets that reported the incident did so by revealing her registered name and misgendering her. Activists from Tabasco and other parts of the country claimed this as part of the violence that trans women face. After being murdered, they are revictimized by not recognizing their gender identity and name.
Tabasco trans activist Alexandra Morales says that Elisa did not have a gender identity change. But in the investigation file for this crime it is being taken into account that she was a trans woman.
Hilaria Gutiérrez, consumed by despair and grief, angrily cried out for justice for the death of her daughter, Eli. In the midst of her pain, she claims not to mind losing her life until she finds those who took a piece of her life from her.
“They didn't just take Eli's life, they killed me. I loved my daughter from the moment I knew she was in my womb, they took her from me, they hurt her, they took away her dreams and at the same time they killed me,” she sobbed, devastated.
Eli was a trans girl who assumed she was a woman from a very young age. Contrary to other cases, Eli received the support of her mother and her brothers who at all times respected her decision to undergo her transition, without imagining that she would soon tragically leave her side.
Although Eli provided beauty services to some neighbors in the community where he lived, the money was never enough to cover the expenses, so he decided to dedicate himself to sex services in the center of the city.
The 23-year-old girl decided to leave for the local capital from Tenosique, far from her mother. Eli lived in silence about traumatic events that had already taken a toll on her life. At the beginning of 2023, she was a victim of kidnapping, after three days of being captive was freed by her captors who claimed to have confused her.
For Hilaria, justice has become an elusive ghost that seems to mock her and her daughter, refusing to be under the shadow of impunity, promising herself not to rest until she gives her daughter the rest she deserves.
https://www.tabascohoy.com/buscare-justicia-aunque-de-mi-vida-madre-de-chica-trans/
https://www.tabascohoy.com/elisa-trans-asesinado-en-platano-y-cacao/
https://escandala.com/asesinan-a-mujer-trans-en-tabasco/
https://www.diariopresente.mx/elsoldelsureste/transfeminicidio-le-dieron-un-plomazo/392772
https://twitter.com/PresentesLatam/status/1758946232204976469