This is the web version of Americanas, the EL PAÍS América newsletter in which it addresses news and ideas with a gender perspective. If you want to subscribe, you can do so. in this link.
Destroying is easier than building and Argentina has been suffering from it firsthand for months. This country championed the rights of women and sexual diversities decades ago and became a beacon for Latin America: Congress approved gay marriage in 2010, the gender identity law in 2012 and the legalization of abortion in 2021. But the arrival of Javier Milei to the Presidency has begun to undermine these advances.
Embarked on a battle against “cultural Marxism” that includes left-wing parties but also feminisms, the ghost of gender ideology and the LGBTI+ collective, Milei refuses to recognize that there is violence for reasons of gender or sexual orientation. The most aberrant case in recent weeks has been the attack with a Molotov bomb on four lesbians who shared a room without a bathroom in a boarding house in the Barracas neighborhood, in Buenos Aires. A neighbor doused them with flammable liquid and threw fire to burn them alive. Although they ran to help them, only one survived.
“There are many women and men who suffer violence,” responded the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, when asked about what is known as the “Baracas massacre.” “It seems very unfair to me to only talk about this episode when violence is something much more comprehensive than simply an issue against a certain group,” he added.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has condemned “the arson attack against four lesbian women, in which their rights to life and personal integrity were affected” and has demanded that the Argentine Justice “at all stages of the investigation, the prosecution and punishment, the possible bias-based motivation for the crime must be taken into account.”
For the far-right government, however, lesbicides do not exist nor was the triple murder in Barracas a hate crime. Nor did it seem necessary to maintain the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (Inadi), an organization that was a pioneer in the region. “We are making progress in the dismantling of institutes that are useless or are large political funds or are for militant employment. The first one we start with is Inadi,” Adorni said when announcing its closure.
Official statements clash, however, with reality. According to the annual report of the National Observatory of LGBT+ Hate Crimes, hate crimes are on the rise in Argentina: in 2023, 133 crimes were recorded in which the sexual orientation, identity and/or gender expression of all victims were used as a pretext for attacks. In 2022 there were 129 and in 2021, 120.
Murders are the most extreme form of violence, but verbal attacks against sexual diversity have grown even more. The discriminatory discourse comes even from the Government itself or people very close to it, such as presidential biographer Nicolás Márquez, who considers that “when the State promotes, encourages and finances homosexuality, it is encouraging self-destructive behavior.” The third of the fatal victims of the Barracas massacre was still fighting to survive, with burns on 75% of her body, when Márquez presented his book about Milei at the Book Fair and a group of people demonstrated outside in protest. “Don’t become a lesbian, so they don’t kill you. Good reason to claim heterosexuality,” he wrote in a tweet that he later deleted in response to the EL PAÍS article about the triple crime.
The same day that the news gained international relevance, the Government announced that it had separated the murderers of Lucio Dupuy, a five-year-old boy who died from the beatings that both gave him, to two different prisons. “The honeymoon is over for Lucio Dupuy’s murderers,” the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, wrote on her networks. “In their statement, the murderous couple confessed that Lucio was ‘the obstacle’: that’s what they called him to be together and that’s why they killed him,” continued the message spread by Bullrich.
The moment chosen to give this news does not seem like a coincidence. For the first time in its recent history, discriminatory speeches are tolerated by the Argentine Government, and even encouraged from the center of power. The light of this regional beacon is in danger of going out.
![Cecilia Galván, Researcher, Civic Compass, Fiorella Fabbri, Corporate Communication Manager, Google Mexico, Glenda Mitchel, Public Policy Manager, Meta México and Grecia Macías, Lawyer, Network in Defense of Digital Rights participate in a table, during the Forum Women in Power, organized by Lumintate and Prisa Media México. On May 14, 2024 in Mexico City.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/5IPQODPD4RATXE6Y736DNJHEE4.jpg?auth=9075738e94fab63554078c34d869d8123c532452d0fc497edcafe2cea91275db&width=414 414w)
EL PAÍS América and Luminate bring together several political representatives and digital platforms in Mexico City to talk about representation, gender-based political violence and the use of technology in elections.
![DVD1212. Carolina Meloni. Alvaro Garcia. 05/06/2024](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/XEX5Z6WWWNDT5MEKKX7YDQUAGA.jpg?auth=20095ae9d0832beef110b95aa42620d307ded58f4c766b2d547899e4ae88ec73&width=414 414w)
The academic has been studying feminist genealogies for years. She is a theorist of sexualities, she is concerned about the verbal violence that is entering the very house of feminism.
![Verónica Palma Ciudad Juárez Marathon](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/VAJCYUBMWZEBXF7EU5W5HWDZGI.jpeg?auth=3e02e6aa1de215f2e3ef7bce4b1bfd8d9362382c6d97d439d7597788d43a83fc&width=414 414w)
The Ciudad Juárez marathon requires indigenous people to wear sandals to participate in its category. Verónica Palma wants them to change this rule that she considers discriminatory.
![Beatriz, after a recording session of the Kumiay language, in San José de la Zorra (Baja California, Mexico)](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/5E2EJH3G5VGYTLKSSWTEHR3JSI.jpeg?auth=a7cd73cd4285e55282aaa7e7de856e1faccea364c012151bfe7644410cf651a7&width=414 414w)
There are only a hundred speakers of this indigenous language in northern Mexico, according to experts estimate. A linguist works with some of them to record the lexicon.
![Judith Godreche](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/CIOFFUOSXBFT5PUNYMDXE3NKVU.jpg?auth=6691821d70d20c45589bd00bda87c531134cc4ff3fa00f5bcf747f829ace319f&width=414 414w)
The evasiveness of the organizers of the Cannes festival in the face of cases of abuse by powerful figures in the film industry demonstrates France’s delay in the fight against sexual violence.
![We will always have tomorrow](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/TBXDXBSYCZE3XMDPYBQE5SI4TE.jpg?auth=e56b30185f53b9e104c77ad6bc16e709d627449eed7b8533c1e6f8321e88211c&width=414 414w)
The disdainful masculine attitude survives in numerous behaviors. Contempt for the feminine word is part of our culture.
![Nathy Peluso](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/7LG4RRU62VEJDDD3YN452DEJW4.jpg?auth=0e31609ac4a4e230ca9177bdde38d90f5776c01f7f4029559ad9cd8631f2a969&width=414 414w)
Argentine raised in Spain, rap star forged on YouTube and winner of a Latin Grammy. She has made rupture, the unexpected, boldness and continuous change her hallmark. Now forget all this: she returns with a new identity and a new album, ‘Grasa’.
Thank you very much for joining us and see you next Monday! (If you have been sent this newsletter and you want to subscribe to receive it in your email, you can do it here).
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