Police officers watched and offered encouragement as five attackers beat a transvestite activist April 20 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, according to a May 4 alert from Amnesty International USA.
At the time of the attack, Josef Fabio Estrada, who is a leader of the Rainbow Association Transvestite Group, and two other transgender prostitutes were working in the gay Comayagela district of the city.
"They were stopped and searched by police," Amnesty said. "
Almost immediately, Estrada was set upon and beaten by five men, while a police patrol car sat parked nearby. The officers reportedly watched, laughed and offered encouragement to the attackers, shouting, 'Kill the faggot, beat him!' The police allegedly prevented two other sex workers from intervening. Estrada reportedly used a broken bottle found on the ground to defend himself. At this point the police finally intervened. They arrested and handcuffed Estrada, but let his attackers go free."
Amnesty says Estrada was seriously injured and has received no medical attention in custody. He is charged with attempted murder and robbery, and is being held in the state penitentiary's "cell of death" with prisoners suffering from tuberculosis, AIDS and mental illness, the organization said.
"Tragically, these grave threats and human rights abuses are all too common for the LGBT community in Honduras," said Amnesty USA's Ariel Herrera, director of the organization's OUTfront Program.
In March, the Rainbow Association's treasurer, Donny Reyes, was detained by police and held in a cell where he was raped and beaten by fellow prisoners at the urging of one of the arresting officers.
"Look, I'm bringing you a little princess, you know what to do," the officer said, according to Amnesty.
Amnesty said the Rainbow Association recently vacated its offices because of police intimidation and harassment that followed Reyes' public complaints about the abuse.
Honduran nongovernmental organizations say some 200 GLBT Hondurans were killed between 1991 and 2003 in anti-GLBT hate crimes.
Honduran activist injured in attack, jailed
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