Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by JOETEX1/Bigstock)
Two people died and at least five others were injured on May 20 when a man threw a Molotov cocktail into the room of a Buenos Aires boarding house in which two lesbian couples lived.
The fire took place at around 1 a.m. in a house at 1600 Olavarría St., between Isabel la Católica and Montes de Ocoa in Buenos Aires’s Barracas neighborhood. The blaze forced roughly 30 people to evacuate, and injured individuals were taken to local hospitals.
Police say Justo Fernando Barrientos, 68, sprayed fuel and set fire to the room where Mercedes Figueroa, 52, lived with Pamela Fabiana Cobas, 52, Sofía Castro Riglos, 49, and Andrea Amarante, 42.
Figueroa and Cobas both died in the fire. Castro and Amarante were hospitalized at Penna Hospital in Buenos Aires where Amarante died from injuries sustained in the fire.
Witnesses say the fire started on the second floor when Barrientos threw a Molotov cocktail inside the women’s room, and it soon spread throughout the property. LGBTQ+ organizations in Argentina have described the blaze as a hate crime because Barrientos had already threatened to kill the women because they are lesbians.
“We are in a rather complex context, where from the apex of power, the president himself and his advisors and downwards permanently instill a hate speech, instilling it when they close the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), stigmatizing the population that is there and the vulnerable groups,” said Congressman Esteban Paulón, a well-known LGBTQ activist, to the Washington Blade.
“All this is generating a climate of violence,” said Paulón. “The fact that it happened in the city of Buenos Aires, which is terrible … has to be investigated.”
Paulón said President Javier Milei’s government has installed in the public discourse speeches and actions against the LGBTQ+ community that have provoked more violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“All that is installed … and then there are people who fail to make a mediation of that, that fail to make a critical analysis of that and can end up generating an act of hatred like this, which is tragic and that already took the lives of two people,” Paulón said.
The Argentine LGBT+ Federation on social media said it was looking for the victims’ families and friends, but has yet to be able to connect with them.
“We are going to stand by them, making ourselves available for whatever they and their families need, and we will closely follow the court case so that there is justice,” said the organization. “But we cannot fail to point out that hate crimes are the result of a culture of violence and discrimination that is sustained on hate speeches that today are endorsed by several officials and referents of the national government.”
100% Diversidad y Derechos, another advocacy group, demanded the investigation address the attack “with a gender perspective and as motivated by hatred towards lesbian identity.”
Barrientos has been arrested, and will be charged with murder. Activists have requested authorities add discrimination and hate provisions to the charges.
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