A suspect has reportedly been arrest following the death of transgender activist Mireya Rodriguez Lemus in Mexico earlier this month.
On Sunday, law enforcement officials in Aquiles Serdan reportedly apprehended Ivan Arturo in connection with Rodriguez’s murder. Rodriguez, a well-known trans advocate who worked with the Union of Trans Women of Chihuahua, was reportedly stabbed to death inside her home on September 2.
According to the Austin, Texas NBC news affiliate KXAN, she had been receiving threats leading up to her murder but local police declined to investigate.
Officials have not publicly identified a motive for her killing, but the news website Border Report alleges that law enforcement agents found evidence linking Arturo to the murder. According to the report, the United Nations has called on authorities in Aquiles Serdan, which is located outside the northern Mexican town of Chihuahua city, to ensure the homicide receives a full investigation.
Rodriguez isn’t the only transgender woman in Mexico who has lost their lives to violence in recent weeks. Just days after local activists staged a protest calling attention to Rodriguez’s murder, the body of Leslie Rocha was found in border city Ciudad Juarez.
Last year at least 117 LGBTQ+ people lost their lives to violence in Mexico, according to the anti-violence group Letra Esse, and half of the victims were transgender.
As activists work to bring greater attention to this epidemic, rates of violence are climbing ever higher. The number of anti-LGBTQ+ murders in 2015 represented a five-year high for Mexico, as well as a sharp 27% increase from the year prior.
Although LGBTQ+ advocates remain hopeful things will change, many are admittedly afraid for their lives. A transgender woman who wished to remain anoymous told NBC News that the community doesn’t “know what to do anymore because there are so many hate crimes against the trans population.”
“You can’t imagine what all us trans people have lived through to arrive here, for us still to see that we haven’t been defended,” added activist Deborah Alvarez in comments to Reuters.
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