Vanesa Lorena Ledesma
Age 4716 Feb 2000
Córdoba (Argentina)
Died in custody
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/16 Feb 2000/Vanesa-Lorena Ledesma
Vanesa was arrested during a fight in a bar in Córdoba on 11th February. She died in custody in a police station just 5 days later.
Amnesty International took up her case after her autopsy revealed signs of torture on her feet, arms, back and shoulders.
International controversy over the death in Córdoba of an Argentine [trans woman]
A [trans woman] who died in an Argentine jail yesterday became the center of a controversy. Amnesty International chose her as one of six symbolic cases intended to mark its 40th anniversary. But the Human Rights Secretariat of Córdoba questioned that decision and pointed out that the case did not occur as presented by the international organization.
On May 28, 1961, Amnesty launched its first campaign in favor of the release of six political prisoners in the world.
"In the framework of its 40th anniversary, Amnesty International focuses its efforts on the case of an Argentine [trans woman], Vanesa Lorena Ledesma, arrested in Cordoba on February 11, 2000 and who died in jail five days later," says the organization.
The other cases dealt with by the organization refer to men and women from Myanmar, China, Egypt, Ethiopia and Turkey who are imprisoned because of their ideas or who are victims of torture, unfair trials or who died in prison.
Police say that Vanesa, 47, died of a heart attack. But Amnesty says her autopsy revealed signs of torture on the feet and arms, on the back and shoulders.
Ledesma was an active member of the United Travestis Association of Córdoba (ATUC). She was arrested in a bar during a fight and, according to Amnesty, accused of causing damage to the premises. She died five days later at police station 18 in Córdoba.
In Buenos Aires, that this case has been chosen by Amnesty as one of the symbolic acts of torture in the world, shows "the systematic police persecution" and "homophobia" in the country, affirmed to AFP the leader of the Argentine Homosexual Community ( CHA), César Ciglutti.
But in Cordoba, according to the agency DyN, the secretary of Human Rights, Guillermo Johnson, said that three prosecutors in that province concluded that there was no responsibility of police personnel in the death of Ledesma. In the grounds for filing the case, on May 16, the prosecutor Mario Dellavedova stressed that the medical experts ruled out death by suffocation, strangulation or toxicology.
And he insisted that Ledesma had congenital coronary malformations, HIV, hepatic and syphilitic infection, which hastened her death.
Vanesa had no history of heart problems.
https://www.revistaforum.com.br/a-estupidez-da-intolerancia/
http://www.humanrightspaintingproject.com/detail.php?id=226
http://www.carlaantonelli.com/archivos_en_memoria_de.htm
https://paper-bird.net/tag/vanesa-ledesma/
http://www.aldarte.org/comun/imagenes/documentos/torturas.pdf
https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/120000/act400162001ar.pdf
