South America
Uruguay’s LGBTQ activists continue fight for equality
Country seen as one of the world’s most LGBTQ-friendly nations
In a country that has historically been considered a vanguard in terms of human rights and recognition of sexual diversity in South America, Uruguay’s activists continue to emphasize the importance of continuing to fight for the effective implementation of policies that will improve LGBTQ people’s lives.
Various marches took place across the country last month, 30 years after Uruguay’s first queer rights demonstration. The march in Montevideo, the country’s capital, was the last of these protests that took place.
Nicolás Pizarro and Daniela Buquet of Coordinadora de la Marcha por la Diversidad and Diego Sempol, a political scientist and supporter of various organizations, in a series of exclusive interviews with the Washington Blade offered an in-depth look at Uruguay’s LGBTQ community’s current situation and the challenges it faces.
Progressive laws, incomplete implementation
Uruguay has been a pioneer in the region in terms of the implementation of laws that protect the rights of LGBTQ people. They include the Comprehensive Law for Trans Persons; the Law on the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy; the Law Against Racism, Xenophobia and all forms of Discrimination, and the Law on Gender-Based Violence. Uruguay’s marriage equality law took effect in 2013.
These laws have been the result of the hard work of social movements and activists who have fought tirelessly for equality and justice. Their effective implementation, however, remains a challenge.
Pizarro points out a lack of budget and political will has hindered the full realization of these public policies.
“Uruguay is in a difficult political context today, where the right-wing government is cutting budgets and pursuing a regressive agenda in (terms of) human rights legislation,” Pizarro told the Blade.
He said this situation has led to LGBTQ people having to lobby and take to the streets to demand that existing laws be enforced and the necessary resources be allocated to do so.
Sempol, meanwhile, indicated “the movement’s current demands are linked to the effective enforcement of the laws in all their terms and that economic resources are actually allocated to strengthen public policies.”
Pride march participants denounce impunity
Montevideo’s Pride march is an emblematic event that brings together thousands of people every year to celebrate diversity and demand equal rights.
Buquet explained this year’s demonstration happened under the slogan “Basta de impunidad y saqueo de derechos” or “Enough impunity and plundering of rights.” It reflects the LGBTQ community’s concerns over the obstacles they face in the search for equality and justice.
One of this year’s march highlights was the denunciation of the lack of governmental will to advance investigations into those who disappeared during Uruguay’s military dictatorship from 1973-1985. The LGBTQ community has joined this struggle, demanding justice for victims and accountability on the part of the State.
The march also sought to address a number of fundamental demands: Access to health care, education, work and housing without discrimination. The lack of budget to implement the gender-based violence and trans rights laws was an additional concern.
“We believe it is essential to denounce the cuts in public policies that leave the most vulnerable populations adrift,” Buquet told the Blade, specifically referring to the transgender rights law that has yet to be fully implemented. “They (trans people) continue to be one of the populations in the worst socioeconomic situations, they do not have access to jobs, they do not have access to education and health professionals still do not have the necessary training, which means that access to health care continues to be violated.”
Pizarro pointed out “the sex-identity dissidences continue without access to health, culture, education, work and housing without being discriminated against.”
Initiatives seek to help LGBTQ Uruguayans
LGBTQ organizations and activists in Uruguay continue to carry out a series of initiatives and projects designed to help the community, despite the challenges and obstacles.
Pizarro noted Colectivo Diverso Las Piedras works in the Public Policy Council for Sexual Diversity to ensure the comprehensive implementation of existing laws that include the creation of assistance plans for LGBTQ people with a special focus on trans people who are in vulnerable situations. The group is also committed to training and raising awareness in places that include educational and institutional centers.
Colectivo Diverso Las Piedras works closely with other social movements in Canelones department and across the country to promote inclusive and equitable public policies.
One outstanding project on which it is working is “Trans Memories and Authoritarianisms” in collaboration with Diego Sempol, who is a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Social Services, and other organizations. project seeks to make visible the experiences of trans women detained and tortured during the Uruguayan dictatorship, shedding light on a dark period in the country’s history and highlighting the importance of an intersectional perspective when analyzing the recent past.
Pizarro told the Blade “the most important thing is to show the state that our rights are systematically violated.”
“Fifty years after the coup d’état in Uruguay we denounce the government’s unwillingness to move forward in the investigations of disappeared detainees, wanting to take human rights violators to serve their sentences at home and installing a false story of the two demons about this period, wanting to remove the responsibility of the State in crimes against humanity,” he said.
Sempol explained this reconstruction milestone “has a lot to do with the emergence of a memory, of a memory, of the gender dissidence that is trying to bet on reconstructing the past and somehow, to give this temporality to the struggles and to the identity of LGBTQ+ people in Uruguay. So there is a process of reconstruction, of a memory.”
Chile
Far-right Chilean President José Antonio Kast takes office
Former congressman opposes LGBTQ rights
Chilean President José Antonio Kast took office on Wednesday.
Kast — the far-right leader of the Republican Party who was a member of the country’s House of Deputies from 2002-2018 — defeated Jeannette Jara — a member of the Communist Party of Chile who was the former labor and social welfare minister in former President Gabriel Boric’s government — in last year’s presidential election.
The Chilean constitution prevented Boric from running for a second consecutive term.
The Washington Blade has previously reported Kast has expressed his opposition to gender-specific policies, comprehensive sex education, and reforms to Chile’s anti-discrimination laws. Kast has also publicly opposed the country’s marriage equality law that took effect on March 10, 2022, the day before Boric took office.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBTQ and intersex rights group known by the acronym Movilh, declared a “state of alert” after Kast’s election, “given this leader’s (Kast’s) public and political trajectory, characterized for decades by systematic opposition to laws and policies aimed at equality and nondiscrimination of LGBTIQ+ individuals.”
Argentine President Javier Milei, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Landau, and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado are among those who attended Kast’s inauguration that took place in the Chilean Congress in Valparaíso.
Colombia
Claudia López wins primary in Colombian presidential race
Former Bogotá mayor’s wife lost reelection bid on Sunday
Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Sunday won her primary in the race to succeed Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
López, a centrist who is running as an independent, defeated Leonardo Huerta in the “Consulta de las Soluciones” primary.
López was the Colombian capital’s mayor from 2020-2023. She was a member of the Colombian Senate from 2014-2018.
López is running to succeed Petro, the country’s first leftist president who cannot seek a second consecutive term under Colombia’s constitution. Other presidential candidates who won their respective parties’ primaries on Sunday include Sen. Iván Cepeda, a member of Petro’s Historic Pact party, and Sen. Paloma Valencia of the conservative Democratic Center, the country’s main opposition party that former President Álvaro Uribe leads.
Juan Daniel Oviedo, who finished second in the Democratic Center’s primary, is openly gay.
The first-round of Colombia’s presidential election will take place on May 31.
Polls indicate López is trailing Cepeda and Valencia, who are considered the two frontrunners.
A second round will take place is no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote on May 31. López would become Colombia’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins the election.
López’s wife loses Senate seat
Colombia’s congressional elections also took place on Sunday.
Former Congressman Mauricio Toro, a member of the center-left Green Alliance party, in 2018 became the first openly gay man elected to Colombian Congress when he won a seat in the House of Representatives.
He lost his reelection bid in 2022. Voters on Sunday elected Toro for a second term.
Congresswoman María del Mar Pizarro, a bisexual Historic Pact member, won re-election.
Caribe Afirmativo, a Colombian LGBTQ and intersex rights group, notes only two of the 33 openly LGBTQ congressional candidates won their respective races. Among those who lost is Sen. Angélica Lozano, a bisexual woman who in 2018 became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Colombian Senate.
Lozano is married to López.
Lozano in a message posted to her Instagram page expressed “heartfelt gratitude to everyone for their support and love.”
“I will end my work in Congress on a high note by ensuring (the) child support and service contractor protection bills will become a reality in June,” she said.
Ecuador
Justicia reconoce delito de odio en caso de bullying en Instituto Nacional Mejía de Ecuador
Johana B se suicidó el 11 de abril de 2023
A casi tres años del suicidio de Johana B., quien estudió en el Instituto Nacional Mejía, colegio emblemático de Quito, el Tribunal de la Corte Nacional de Justicia ratificó la condena para el alumno responsable del acoso escolar que la llevó a quitarse la vida.
Según información de la Fiscalía, el fallo de última instancia deja en firme la condena de cuatro años de internamiento en un centro para adolescentes infractores, en una audiencia de casación pedida por la defensa del agresor, tres meses antes de que prescriba el caso.
Con la sentencia, este caso es uno de los primeros en el país en reconocer actos de odio por violencia de género, delito tipificado en el artículo 177 del Código Orgánico Penal Integral (COIP).
El suicidio de Johana B. ocurrió el 11 abril de 2023 y fue consecuencia del acoso escolar por estereotipos de género que enfrentó la estudiante por parte de su agresor, quien constantemente la insultaba y agredía por su forma de vestir, llevar el cabello corto o practicar actividades que hace años se consideraban exclusivamente para hombres, como ser mando de la Banda de Paz en el Instituto Nacional Mejía.
Desde la muerte de Johana, su familia buscaba justicia. Su padre, José, en una entrevista concedida a edición cientonce para la investigación periodística Los suicidios que quedan en el clóset a causa de la omisión estatal afirmó que su hija era acosada por su compañero y otres estudiantes con apodos como “marimacha”, lo que también fue corroborado en los testimonios recogidos por la Unidad de Justicia Juvenil No. 4 de la Fiscalía.
Los resultados de la autopsia psicológica y del examen antropológico realizados tras la muerte de Johana confirmaron las versiones de sus compañeras y docentes: que su agresor la acosó de manera sistemática durante dos años. Los empujones, jalones de cabello o burlas, incluso por su situación económica, eran constantes en el aula de clase.
La violencia que recibió Johana escaló cuando su compañero le dio un codazo en la espalda ocasionándole una lesión que le imposibilitó caminar y asistir a clases.
Días después del hecho, la adolescente se quitó la vida en su casa, tras escuchar que la madre del agresor se negó a pagar la mitad del valor de una tomografía para determinar la lesión en su espalda, tal como lo había acordado previamente con sus padres y frente al personal del DECE (Departamento de Consejería Estudiantil del colegio), según versiones de su familia y la Fiscalía.
#AFONDO | Johana se suicidó el 11 de abril de 2023, tras ser víctima de acoso escolar por no cumplir con estereotipos femeninos 😢.
Dos semanas antes, uno de sus compañeros le dio un codazo en la espalda, ocasionándole una lesión que le imposibilitó caminar 🧵 pic.twitter.com/bXKUs9YYOm
— EdicionCientonce (@EdCientonce) September 3, 2025
“Era una chica linda, fuerte, alegre. Siempre nos llevamos muy bien, hemos compartido todo. Nos dejó muchos recuerdos y todos nos sentimos tristes; siempre estamos pensando en ella. Es un vacío tan grande aquí, en este lugar”, expresó José a Edición Cientonce el año pasado.
Para la fiscal del caso y de la Unidad de Justicia Juvenil de la Fiscalía, Martha Reino, el suicidio de la adolescente fue un agravante que se contempló durante la audiencia de juzgamiento de marzo de 2024, según explicó a este medio el año pasado. Desde entonces, la familia del agresor presentó un recurso de casación en la Corte Nacional de Justicia, que provocó la dilatación del proceso.
En el fallo de última instancia, el Tribunal también dispuso que el agresor pague $3.000 a la familia de Johana B. como reparación integral. Además, el adolescente deberá recibir medidas socioeducativas, de acuerdo al artículo 385 del Código Orgánico de la Niñez y Adolescencia, señala la Fiscalía.
El caso de Johana también destapó las omisiones y negligencias del personal del DECE y docentes del Instituto Nacional Mejía. En la etapa de instrucción fiscal se comprobó que no se aplicaron los protocolos respectivos para proteger a la víctima.
De hecho, la Fiscalía conoció el caso a raíz de la denuncia que presentó su padre, José, y no por el DECE, aseguró la fiscal el año pasado a Edición Cientonce.
Pese a estas omisiones presentadas en el proceso, el fallo de última instancia sólo ratificó la condena para el estudiante.
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