The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute will honor Peruvian Congresswoman Susel Paredes at its annual International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference that will take place in D.C. in December.

Paredes, a long-time activist who in 2021 became the first lesbian woman elected to the South American country’s Congress, will receive the 2024 LGBTQ+ Victory Institute Global Trailblazer Award.

Paredes and her wife, Gracia Aljovín, married in Miami in 2016. The two women sued the Peruvian government after the country’s Constitutional Court denied their request to register their marriage. 

“It is a true honor and a recognition that I deeply value,” said Paredes in a post to her X account after she learned the Victory Institute will honor her in D.C.

Victory Institute Executive Director Elliot Imse described Paredes as “a true champion through her activism and political engagement for decades.”

“Her historic election to the Congress of Peru is just one of many testaments to her status as a true trailblazer who is exceptionally deserving of this honor,” added Imse.

Argentine President Javier Milei’s government has officially closed the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI).

INADI, created in 1995, was a key player in the promotion and protection of human rights in Argentina, offering support and resources to people affected by discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and other characteristics.

Officials announced INADI’s closure on Tuesday during a press conference. Milei’s government has presented the move as part of a reform to streamline public administration and restructure human rights policies.

“One of President Milei’s ideals is the reduction of the state and the elimination of everything that does not generate a benefit for Argentines,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said in February when he announced INADI’s closure. “The decision was made to move forward in the dismantling of different institutes that effectively serve absolutely no purpose or are big boxes of politics or places to generate militant employment and the first of them is going to be INADI.”

The international community, including human rights organizations and LGBTQ activist groups, have expressed strong concern. 

INADI has played a crucial role in the implementation of progressive laws in Argentina, such as the Gender Identity Law and marriage equality. Its dissolution raises questions about the continuity of these efforts.

“It is extremely serious, especially because we are in a moment in Argentina, not only because of the local context, but also the global context of a growth, an increase in anti-Semitism, racism, violence, xenophobia, LGBTphobia,” gay Congressman Esteban Paulón told the Washington Blade.

Paulón added Tuesday marked “three months since a triple femicide that occurred in the city of Buenos Aires with three lesbian women who were set on fire by a person who attacked them.” 

“INADI was acting in many cases as an auxiliary of justice, with opinions that although they were not binding, they were a great support for the judicial instances,” he said. 

Alba Rueda is a transgender woman who was Argentina’s Special Representative on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity under former President Alberto Fernández’s government. Rueda resigned last November ahead of Milei’s inauguration.

Milei’s government earlier this year closed the Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry, under which Rueda worked.

“The closure of Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry, the closure of the special representation on sexual orientation and gender identity, the position of the Foreign Ministry’s position in the OAS (Organization of American States) to reaffirm conversion therapies, and INADI’s closure is one of the situations that comes to institutionally break public policies that protect the most excluded sectors of Argentina,” Rueda told the Blade. 

“The closing of INADI is a very, very serious situation,” she added.

Activists are calling on the government to clarify how it will guarantee queer rights in the future and whether it will create alternative mechanisms to address discrimination complaints.

Santiaga D’Ambrosio, an LGBTQ activist who is a member of the country’s Socialist Workers’ Party, told the Blade “the closure of INADI is an adjustment that endorses discrimination, not only towards sexual diversity, but also towards so many other oppressed, violated or persecuted sectors, such as workers in struggle, migrants, people with disabilities.” 

“INADI, in fact, has played a progressive role in the face of discrimination due to political and union persecution in different workers’ conflicts, against dismissals and for the recognition of union privileges in workplaces,” added D’Ambrosio.

D’Ambrosio, at the same time, said INADI’s closure deepens the economic and social crisis through which the Latin American country is going.

“Behind the closure of an agency, there are layoffs and uncertainty among its workers and their families,” said D’Ambrosio, noting layoffs have also taken place at Aerolíneas Argentinas, the country’s national airlines, and other companies. “Meanwhile, the enormous tax benefits for national and foreign businessmen remain untouched.”

D’Ambrosio added LGBTQ Argentines and other marginalized groups have to “self-organize independently from all governments who don’t really care about our lives.”

“We have to debate in our workplaces and study … how to conquer and strengthen our claims in the streets,” said D’Ambrosio.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) on Sunday announced President Nicolás Maduro won a third term with 51.2 percent of the votes, compared to the 44.2 percent it said opposition leader Edmundo González received.

Fifty-nine percent of Venezuelans voted in the election that took place peacefully in most of the country, aside from reports of unrest in Táchira state that borders Colombia.

Authorities announced the results six hours after polling places closed, with CNE President Elvis Amoroso attributing the delay to a “terrorist” attack that affected data transmission. Maduro backed this explanation, suggesting a massive hacking of the electoral system took place.

The opposition, however, denounced irregularities and questioned the process’s transparency. Opposition leader María Corina Machado said she and her supporters have minutes that indicate González received 70 percent of the votes.

“There is a new president-elect and he is Edmundo González, and everybody knows it,” said Machado. 

González entered into a political partnership with Machado, who Maduro’s government disqualified from holding public office. Machado backed González, a former diplomat.

“All regulations have been violated,” said González. “Our struggle continues.” 

Maduro, for his part, called on his adversaries to abide by the results.

“This constitution must be respected,” said Maduro while speaking to supporters outside Miraflores Palace in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, after the CSE declared him the winner. “The referee must be respected and no one must try to tarnish this beautiful day.”

In this regard, Tamara Adrián, the country’s first transgender congresswoman who ran in the presidential primary earlier this year, told the Washington Blade that “according to the information we have from the minutes that witnesses were able to obtain in approximately 40 percent of the polling stations, Edmundo González won with a percentage higher than 65 percent of the votes in all the states and in all the social sectors.”

The former congresswoman added “that is the result we had around 8 o’clock at night, when they started to issue instructions from the National Electoral Council for two things: One, to prohibit the entrance of Edmundo González’s witnesses in the vote counting room, something that continued during the whole night.” 

“That is to say they never had any oversight from González in the computations,” Adrián told the Blade.

“And two, they prohibited the table chiefs from printing the minutes that the law says,” she added.

The elections took place amid widespread distrust of the CNE, whose board of directors includes figures linked to the ruling party.

The opposition questioned the electoral body’s impartiality and lack of recognized international observers. Reports indicate people in several areas of Caracas on Sunday used pots and pans to protest the CNE announcement. 

LGBTQ activist Richelle Briceño told the Blade “the electoral participation in favor of change in the country was a majority and that will has been undoubtedly twisted by those who have dominated the electoral power and the armed forces of the nation.” 

“They gave official results that do not adjust to reality and consequently are unverifiable,” said Briceño.

Chilean president, Biden-Harris administration question election results

Chilean President Gabriel Boric and other regional leaders expressed skepticism about the results. 

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed concern about the count’s validity. Cuba and Honduras, on the other hand, congratulated Maduro after the CNE declared him the winner.

“The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are hard to believe,” wrote Boric on his X account. “The international community and above all the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency of the minutes and the process.” 

“We are seriously concerned that the announced result does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” said Blinken.

The situation in Venezuela remains uncertain, and the next few hours could define a new chapter in the country’s tumultuous political history.

“There is no certain formula for Maduro to leave the presidency while the other powers and institutions of the country are at his service,” said Briceño. “Venezuelans did what was in our hands, which was to express ourselves massively. Now we must continue to demand audited and verified results so that the truth is imposed before the world.”

“The support of the international community is fundamental for these purposes,” added Briceño.