Alleged murderer of trans woman to prison in Bogotá

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 24, Jonathan David Castro Acuña, suspected murderer of Luciana Moscoso Moreno, a trans woman who was murdered on June 9, 2021, was sent to prison in the Ciudad Berna neighborhood, in the south of the capital of the Republic. This murder, according to the authorities, was reportedly executed by Castro Acuña for stealing valuables and cash that he had in his home.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the images from the security cameras show that Castro Acuña was the only person who entered the house where Luciana lived, on the day and at the time of the murder, the images also see the defendant leaving the scene.

“The woman's lifeless body was found two days after the crime, after the community alerted to strange circumstances they detected. During the verification of the house, relatives and some people close to Luciana Moscoso indicated that some valuables and cash had been stolen,” said the investigating body in its court report.

The authorities found Luciana lifeless and in a state of decomposition in the apartment where she resided located in the 12D race with 11th street south, in the Ciudad Berna sector. A neighbor in the sector alerted the police that from the young woman's house there was a foul smell and there were flies. In addition, for several days they had not heard or seen Luciana in the neighborhood.

When the authorities entered the house, the stylist's body was wrapped in a blanket on her bed and she was wearing the same clothes that they saw her a week earlier, approximately. From that moment on, the investigation revealed, based on security camera records, that Castro Acuña would have been the only person to enter the property where the victim lived, on the day and during the hours when the murder occurred and subsequently left the scene.

The necropsy report showed that Luciana's cause of death was a sharp weapon wound to the neck. For these events, the Prosecutor's Office charged Castro Acuña with the crimes of aggravated homicide and qualified theft, charges which it did not accept.

The Office of the Ombudsman has a record that during 2021, 35 cases of murders of transgender women were reported in Colombia. These figures position Colombia as the fifth country with the most murders of trans women, followed by the Philippines, with 17 cases; Argentina, with 14, and Pakistan, with 11.

According to Carlos Camargo, ombudsman, transgender women are the ones who “most rigorously endure marginalization and violence”, and asked the authorities to strengthen investigations to bring to justice those responsible for these killings. He also asked them to collect the “recommendations issued by the Office of the Ombudsman in the Early Warnings to prevent such cases.”

Gerson Vergara, regional ombudsman of Valle del Cauca, said that “in order to prevent these acts of violence in 2022, the Ombudsman's Office is working under four basic pillars. The first is the naturalization of diversity, through processes of community awareness. Followed by the processes of raising awareness of institutions in order to avoid actions of discrimination and that citizens can see the authorities as allies”.

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