South America
Peru officially apologizes to transgender woman for police abuse
Officers raped and beat Azul Rojas Marín in 2008
Peru on Nov. 3 issued an official apology to Azul Rojas Marín, a transgender woman who was raped and beaten by a group of police officers in 2008.
After an Inter-American Court on Human Rights’ ruling in 2020, Peru was compelled to formally recognize its culpability in Rojas’ abuse. Despite this historic event, Peru is still far from fulfilling all of its obligations under the decision.
More than 14 years have passed between the incident and the apology ceremony that took place at Peru’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. Illustrating this long journey towards retribution, Rojas lit a candle in front of a photo of her mother, who passed away before she was able to witness her daughter achieve justice.
On Feb. 25, 2008, when she was 26, Rojas was walking home alone. She alleges it was then that a group of police officers searched her, beat her and shouted obscenities. After bringing her to the police station in Casa Grande, she was then stripped and sodomized.
Rojas initially tried to utilize Peru’s legal system to report her crime, but prosecutors dropped the case shortly after they began to investigate it. And even though she appealed the prosecutor’s decision, a Peruvian court dismissed her appeal in January 2009. So Rojas, supported by Promsex, an LGBTQ and intersex human rights organization based in Lima, took her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Four years ago, in 2018, the commission agreed to hear the case, and two years after that, the court released a ruling. On March 12, 2020, the Peruvian state was found guilty of having violated Rojas’ rights. This verdict mandated the Peruvian state to satisfy a list of reparations that included a public apology ceremony for Rojas.
According to political scientist José Alejandro Godoy, last week’s ceremony is unprecedented and is the first time the Peruvian state has apologized for a homophobic or transphobic act.
Godoy told the Washington Blade the ceremony is “a very positive sign [of progress in Peru,] even though it would have been preferable for this to have taken place spontaneously and not by virtue of a court ordering.”
Elida Guerra, a consultant and researcher of international human rights law, works for Promsex’s litigation team. She is more balanced in her response as to whether this ceremony is a harbinger Guerra recognizes the apology ceremony as important in that it acknowledges the violations committed against Rojas. However, she tells the Blade that Peru is far from affording equal rights to its LGBTQ and intersex citizens.
“It must be noted that in Peru there is no regulatory framework for the protection of LGBTI people,” said Guerra. “If we want a significant change with respect to human rights, we need to start making visible actions which protect and guarantee their rights. In this sense, the Peruvian state still has a long way to go.”
Indeed, Peru is one of the few countries in South America which does not provide any legal recognition to same-sex couples. And according to the Williams Institute, “public policies protecting the rights of transgender people are almost non-existent.”
Although trans Peruvians can go to the judiciary to change their name and gender, the process is cumbersome and expensive. With a conservative mayor in Lima set to take office in January, and an embattled, unsympathetic president, the hope for progress coming from Peruvian institutions is bleak.
Many LGBTQ and intersex activists in Peru are therefore finding hope in international courts like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as institutions capable of safeguarding their rights. Godoy even believes entities like the court could end up forcing Peru to “expressly recognize same-sex marriage.”
Guerra also believes the court can help achieve human rights victories but posits that this mechanism is not a panacea for achieving rights.
“We still have challenges such as the procedural delay, the delay in their response, and the effective implementation of the reparations of the sentences,” said Guerra.
In Rojas’ case, these delays are apparent.
Last week’s ceremony had an original deadline which passed months ago. Further, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ 2020 ruling includes many other reparation measures which the Peruvian state has yet to carry out.
The court ordered Peru to “provide medical, psychological and/or psychiatric treatment” to Rojas and to prosecute the officers who tortured her. Neither has happened. The ruling also directs Peru to track anti-LGBTQ violence in the country and develop a national strategy to respond to it.
Despite the slow pace of implementation, Peru’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights does appear to be working on carrying out at least some of these reparations.
“I met with my team to redouble all efforts, so that, from [the Ministry of] Justice and Human Rights, we can promote, manage and coordinate the corresponding reparations,” said Justice and Human Rights Minister Félix Chero Medina at last week’s ceremony.
At the apology ceremony, his ministry announced the formation of “a technical team to … investigate and administer justice during criminal proceedings for cases of LGTBI+ people.”
Chero’s new team is perhaps a welcome development to LGBTQ and intersex Peruvians who are still waiting for their time in court.
Guerra tells the Blade of many cases of queer and trans Peruvians who are victims of multiple human rights violations but who have not been able to obtain justice domestically.
Enrique Vega-Dávila, a queer pastor and academic, echoes Guerra’s claim of many LGBTQ and intersex Peruvians in search of justice.
“There are lesbians who have suffered corrective rape,” Vega-Dávila said. “Also the bullying of LGBTQ children and adolescents has never received any [official] sanction. The state’s many offenses cause the systematic denial of our identities.”
Many problems remain for Peru’s LGBTQ and intersex community. But on the day she awaited for far too long, Rojas was optimistic.
“Today is an historic day,” she said. “This is the new image, the new face of human rights … the beginning of what is yet to come.”
Federal Government
Gay Venezuelan man ‘forcibly disappeared’ to El Salvador files claim against White House
Andry Hernández Romero had asked for asylum in US
A gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who the U.S. “forcibly disappeared” to El Salvador has filed a claim against the federal government.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center, who represents Andry Hernández Romero, on Friday announced their client and five other Venezuelans who the Trump-Vance administration “forcibly removed” to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, filed “administrative claims” under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
The White House on Feb. 20, 2025, designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump less than a month later invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.” The White House then “forcibly removed” Hernández, who had been pursuing his asylum case in the U.S., and more than 250 other Venezuelans to El Salvador.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center disputed claims that Hernández is a Tren de Aragua member.
Hernández was held at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT, until his release on July 18, 2025. Hernández, who is back in Venezuela, claims he suffered physical and sexual abuse while at CECOT.
“As a Venezuelan citizen with no criminal record anywhere in the world, I would like to tell not only the government of the United States but governments everywhere that no human being is illegal,” said Hernández in the Immigrant Defenders Law Center press release. “The practice of judging whole communities for the wrongdoing of a single individual must end. Governments should use their power to help every person in the nation become more aware and informed, to strengthen our cultures and build a stronger generation with principles and values — one that multiplies the positive instead of destroying unfulfilled dreams and opportunities.”
Immigrant Defenders Law Center filed claims on behalf of Hernández and the five other Venezuelans less than three months after American forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges. Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, is Venezuela’s acting president.
‘Due process and accountability cannot be optional’
Immigrant Defenders Law Center on Friday also made the following demands:
- The Trump administration must officially release the names of all people the United States sent to CECOT to ensure that everyone has been or will be released.
- The federal government must clear the names of the 252 men wrongfully labeled as criminal gang members of Tren de Aragua.
- DHS (Department of Homeland Security) must end the practice of outsourcing torture through third‑country removals, restore humanitarian parole, and rebuild a functioning, humane asylum system.
- DHS must reinstate Temporary Protected Status for all individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries, halt mass deportations and unlawful raids and arrests, and guarantee due process for everyone navigating the immigration system.
- Congress must pass the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, which would repeal the Alien Enemies Act.
“In all my years as an immigration attorney, I have never seen a client simply vanish in the middle of their case with no explanation,” said Immigration Defenders Legal Fund Legal Services Director Melissa Shepard. “In court, the government couldn’t even explain where he was — he had been disappeared.”
“When the government detains and transfers people in secrecy, without transparency or access to the courts, it tears at the basic protections a democracy is supposed to guarantee,” added Shepard. “What this experience makes painfully clear is that due process and accountability cannot be optional. They are the only safeguards standing between people and the kind of lawlessness our clients suffered. We must end third country transfers, restore the asylum system, and humanitarian parole, and reinstate temporary protective status so this nightmare never happens again.”
Ecuador
Adolescentes trans en Ecuador podrán cambiar datos en su cédula, pero con condicionamientos
Pueden modificar el campo de género en su documento de identidad con requisitos
Por VICTOR H. CARREÑO | En una sentencia del 5 de febrero de 2026, la Corte Constitucional declaró inconstitucional el requisito legal de mayoría de edad para modificar el campo de sexo o género en la cédula de identidad y fija lineamientos para que adolescentes trans puedan cambiar estos datos.
El máximo organismo de control e interpretación constitucional incorpora dos requerimientos: que la persona adolescente se presente al procedimiento administrativo con sus padres y que informes psicosociales acrediten un grado de madurez.
El fallo resuelve una consulta de constitucionalidad de una unidad judicial que lleva una acción de protección contra el Registro Civil presentada por la familia de un adolescente trans que solicitó, en junio de 2023, modificar el campo de género en la cédula.
La institución se negó porque la Ley Orgánica de Gestión de la Identidad y Datos Civiles establece que la rectificación de sexo o género es un procedimiento para personas mayores de 18 años.
El adolescente, cuya identidad se protege en la sentencia, cuenta con el apoyo de sus padres en su transición, que inició en 2020. En una audiencia, su madre expuso que si bien en el ámbito familiar y en el sistema educativo se respeta la identidad de su hijo, fuera de estos hay situaciones, como en consultas médicas en el Seguro Social, en que debe presentar la cédula de él y quienes la reciben preguntan si es el documento equivocado.
En el desarrollo de la sentencia, la Corte expone por qué el requisito de tener mayoría de edad para acceder a la modificación de datos en la cédula es inconstitucional.
Entre varios motivos, explica que restringe los derechos al libre desarrollo de la personalidad e identidad, que la edad no puede exigirse como “criterio determinante y único” para determinar la madurez de un adolescente, y que la medida puede generar impactos negativos en el bienestar psicológico y emocional.
Por ello, indica que existen mecanismos alternativos como la evaluación individualizada, el acompañamiento técnico y la consideración del contexto familiar.
En ese sentido, la Corte dispone al Registro Civil que debe proceder al cambio de los datos de adolescentes trans cuando acudan acompañades de sus representantes legales y con el respaldo de informes psicosociales.
Estos informes, agrega la sentencia, deben ser de profesionales acreditados o de órganos técnicos públicos competentes que sean considerados por el Registro Civil.
El fallo tiene efectos para este caso y otros similares. A diferencia de otras sentencias, la Corte no ordena una reforma a la legislación.
La organización Silueta X, que difundió el caso en un comunicado el 11 de marzo, calificó el fallo como histórico y explicó que este crea jurisprudencia de cumplimiento obligatorio.
🏳️⚧️🌈Un chico trans de 15 años le dijo al Estado ecuatoriano “yo sé quién soy”. Y la Corte Constitucional le dio la razón. 🏛️✊
Este fallo es nuestro. Es tuyo.
🔗 Lee la comunicado completa en nuestra bio.#DerechosTransEcuador #SiluetaX #CorteConstitucional #AdolescentesTrans pic.twitter.com/aXE4FU9VeS
— Asociación SILUETA 'X' (@SiluetaX) March 11, 2026
Sin embargo, otras organizaciones cuestionan los requisitos. Fundación Pakta indica que si bien la sentencia derriba la barrera etaria de la mayoría de edad, la inclusión de informes psicosociales contradice la tendencia global y regional hacia la despatologización.
Pakta menciona, por ejemplo, la Opinión Consultiva 24/17 de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, instrumento que reconoce la identidad autopercebida de las personas y los derechos patrimoniales de parejas del mismo sexo.
El documento, recuerda Pakta en un comunicado, establece que para el reconocimiento de la identidad de género no se debe exigir certificados médicos ni psicológicos. Además, que la Organización Mundial de la Salud reconoció que la identidad trans no es una patología psiquiátrica.
Mientras que la activista Nua Fuentes, de Proyecto Transgénero, considera que los requisitos impuestos por la Corte pueden ser problemáticos. Menciona que frente al desconocimiento y prejuicios, profesionales de salud patologizan la identidad trans.
La Sentencia 4-24-CN/26 sobre la inconstitucionalidad de negar a adolescentes trans cambio de su sexo o género en la cédula es un acto que entreabre la puerta para los derechos, pero también sostiene algunas barreras y es problemático para adolescentes trans #Ecuador
Abro hilo🧵 pic.twitter.com/aKBUlmnU1A— Nua Elizabeth Fuentes Aguirre (@NuaEliz) March 11, 2026
Además, señala que puede haber casos de que la familia y psicólogos expresen rechazo a la identidad trans y limiten los derechos de adolescentes trans. O también menciona casos de abandono de niñes y adolescentes trans y pregunta cómo reconocer su identidad si no cumplen con el requisito de acudir sin representantes legales.
Los condicionamientos para el cambio del campo de sexo o género en la cédula para adolescentes trans marcan también una diferencia con el procedimiento en personas trans de más de 18 años, pues estas —desde las reformas vigentes en 2024— no deben presentar requisitos. Solo su declaración expresa de ser una persona trans que desea que los datos de su cédula estén conformes a su identidad de género.
La madurez de niñeces y adolescencias ha sido un tema abordado en convenciones o instrumentos internacionales. La Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño de la ONU del 2009 es contundente al reconocerles como seres autónomos y capaces de formar sus propias opiniones a través de la experiencia, el entorno, las expectativas sociales y culturales.
Esta convención es mencionada en una sentencia de la Corte Constitucional en que reconoció la identidad de infancias y adolescencias trans en el sistema educativo.
En las Observaciones Generales del Comité de los Derechos del Niño, documentos de interpretación para los alcances de la mencionada Convención, se explica que la madurez es “la capacidad de comprender y evaluar las consecuencias de un asunto determinado”, lo cual debe considerarse en relación con su capacidad individual, contextos, entornos, experiencias de vida y familiar, desarrollo psicológico y no únicamente con su edad biológica.
Además, que la edad cronológica no determina la evolución de las capacidades de las niñeces y adolescencias porque estas crecen a lo largo del tiempo.
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.
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