Mexican LGBT activist flees to US, seeking asylum

Source: El Universal

[Google translation]

In the absence of precautionary measures of the Mexican State to guarantee their life, recommended by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in April, the director of the Multiple Assistance Center (MAC) 33 and 34 of Chiconautla, Agustín Estrada Negrete fled the country and sought political asylum abroad.

The professor, who claims to suffer persecution by state authorities of Mexico and some people in the community of Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, which houses the schools for children with disabilities, only publicly declared homosexual, was violated September 15 by a group of strangers in a house where he hid.

Estrada said Negrete increased death threats against him, his mother and sister after he denounced discrimination only the local government embarked on their sexual preference.

For lack of official support, the mentor left Mexico a few days ago to protect his life because he suffered two bouts of violence in recent weeks.

The most recent was on 15 September when he was attacked and raped by a group of men in a house where he was hiding and left for dead, then tied him up with duck tape and covered with a plastic bag over his head.

"We told you you were quiet and did not understand, you fucking fag," said one of the strangers who subject. "Tart're dead," shouted another man, who put masking tape on the mouth. Among several put him in his room, pinned her hands and two of them raped her.

Aug. 31, was attacked near the building where he took refuge. A man attacked him with a stabbing weapon. On 16 and 17 August received death threats as well as his mother and sister.

The Commission asked the Mexican government in April granted precautionary measures will Negrete Estrada and his family because their lives were in danger of death threats received only by their sexual orientation, but the request was not met.

The conflict began on May 7, 2007 when Agustin Estrada participated in a parade dressed as a woman during the day of International Day Against Homophobia in Ecatepec. The education authorities of the state of Mexico was forced to take leave from his job for a year because "it was a bad example for children."

Since then he has been harassed and discriminated against by government officials and a sector of the population.

Now, he is alone, out of Mexico in the hope that the authorities of the country where they decided to live, give him political asylum.

"In health, the violation goes wrong, it makes me walk, I walk very slow, sometimes I still bleeding," narrated from exile. Agustín Estrada left everything in Mexico, your family, your work and your life. "Sometimes I have no lunch," he said.

He lives in the basement of a house and soon will go to a home for refugees.

Negrete Estrada, who is the first member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) of Mexico, which is considered by the Commission to grant interim relief, fears that the state government of Mexico requested his extradition if the whole What country is because he faces criminal proceedings after the May 2009 protest against the Government Palace in Toluca.

That day he was arrested and sent to the Almoloya prison where he was raped in a gang.

Note: His case is mentioned in the 2009 State Dept. Human Rights report on Mexico:

One of the most prominent cases of discrimination and violence against gay men was that of Agustin Humberto Estrada Negrete, a teacher and gay activist from Ecatepec, Mexico State. In 2007 he participated in a gay rights march wearing a dress and high heels. According to the NGO Asilegal, soon after the march, Estrada began receiving threatening telephone calls and verbal and physical attacks. In 2008 he was fired from the school for children with disabilities where he worked. After his dismissal, he and a group of supporters began lobbying the government to reinstate him; when they went to the governor's palace to attend a meeting with state officials in May, police beat him and his supporters. The next day he was taken to prison, threatened, and raped. Although he was released, Estrada continued to face harassment by state authorities.

HT: ActUp