On April 7, 2025, a horrific crime was reported: the murder of Sara, a trans woman brutally attacked and thrown into the Playa Rica River. Her arms and legs were broken before being thrown into the water. Although there were people present, no one helped her. Sara screamed in pain, but the response was silence. She was the victim of extreme violence that is becoming more common and frequently ignored.

A devastating video showing the scene is circulating on social media. It is painful proof of the hate and the coldness of a society that has learned to look the other way. That indifference was also a death sentence for Sara. And it is the same indifference that today leaves those who attack us, persecute us, and murder us, unpunished.

What happened to Sara is not an isolated incident. It is part of systematic violence that is increasingly targeting LGBTIQ+ people in Colombia, especially trans people. Those who hate us do not settle for attacking us physically; they seek to erase our existence, deny our rights, silence our voices.

In 2025, 24 LGBTIQ+ people have already been murdered in Colombia. Twenty-four. Each one with a name, a story, dreams. And in the last six years, we have recorded over 200 cases of systematic annihilation of people with trans life experiences, making Colombia the second country in South America with the most registered cases after Brazil. (DMT 2024, GAAT). This shocking number continues to grow while the State remains inactive, offering no real responses or concrete measures.

Many of these murders happen in public places, in broad daylight, in front of witnesses who do nothing and authorities who do not protect. These are hate-motivated acts of violence that end up buried, and made invisible by an institutional structure that fails, that is silent, that abandons.

Sara's death cannot go unpunished. We cannot allow her to become just another statistic. We need immediate actions, real justice, and guarantees to live without fear.

We demand a firm, urgent, and sustained commitment to defend our lives from the Attorney General's Office, the Municipal Ombudsman's Office in Bello, the Ministry of Equality, the Mayor's Office of Bello, and the Antioquia Government. Public statements are not enough: we need effective public policies, immediate protection, and a strong response to this emergency.

Sign this petition and join the call for justice for Sara and every LGBT+ person murdered in Colombia. Enough hate. Enough with the silence.

Sources:

A new act of violence claims the life of a trans woman in Bello, Antioquia - Caribe Afirmativo
The shocking video of a trans woman who was beaten and thrown into a river in Bello, later died - Teleantioquia
Trans Memory Day Report 2024 - Fundación GAAT-Grupo de Acción y Apoyo a Personas Trans