Summary:

IGLHRC supports the complaint submitted by local activists in Córdoba, Argentina, and urges you to write letters to the following authorities, demanding:

• That a full and fair investigation on the circumstances of Vanesa Lorena Ledesma's death be carried out, with fair trial and punishment of those found guilty of actually perpetrating the abuse as well as of the authorities who are institutionally responsible for allowing it to happen.
• That any investigation and further developments in the case of Vanesa Lorena Ledesma be made in a transparent and public fashion.
• That Articles 42, 43 and 51, Chapter I, Title I of the Córdoba Code of Misdemeanor be repealed. These are the sections that include outdated and discriminatory references to "offenses to decorum", "public decency" and "public scandal," that in effect do not punish behaviors but expressions of the self, such as transvestism.

  Addresses:

  (Cordoba's ombudsman)
  Defensor del Pueblo de la Provincia de Córdoba
  Dr. JosZ Maria Zamanillo

  Fx (54 351) 434 20 60 or 434 20 61
  defpueblo@infovia.com.ar

  (Cordoba's Attorney General)
  Fiscal General de la Provincia de Córdoba
  Dr. Miguel Angel Ortiz Pellegrini

  Caseros 551, Córdoba, Argentina
  Fax (54 351) 421 58 41

  (Cordoba Governor)
  Gobernador de la Provincia de Córdoba
  Dr. JosZ Manuel de la Sota

  Attn: Secretaria General, Dra. Olga Riutort
  Boulevard Chacabuco 1300, Córdoba, Argentina
  Fax (54 351) 434 30 13
  olga.riutort@cba.gov.ar

  Ministro del Interior
  Dr. Federico Storani

  25 de Mayo 101, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  Fax (54 11 ) 43 31 70 51 or 43 42 60 81
  diredcom@mininterior.gov.ar

  Secretaria de Derechos Humanos
  Dra. Diana Conti

  Leandro N. Alem 150 PB, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  Fax 54 11 43 43 23 26
  (to send her an email, please access the following web page: http://www.jus.gov.ar)

  Please send a copy to

  ATUC - Vanesa Piedrabuena

  San Martin 764, Barrio Centro, Cordoba, Argentina
  or email them to ALITT c/o ATUC
  alitt@arnet.com.ar

  BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

  On February 11, at 1 am, Vanesa Lorena Ledesma (legal name "Miguel Angel" Ledesma) was arrested in Mikons Bar, Córdoba, Argentina, during a fight with other patrons and charged with "damage" to the bar premises. According to police reports she was "psychologically altered" and the police used physical violence at the time of her arrest. She was taken to Precinto (police station) number 19 and then transferred to Precinto number 18. She was reportedly segregated from other inmates. In Córdoba transvestite inmates and HIV-positive inmates are kept in separate jails, segregated from the rest of the prison population. According to local activists the rationale for this policy is not the protection of those segregated, but rather of the other inmates from having to share the same space with "sick" people.

  No further news could be obtained about Vanesa from the time of her arrest until five days later, when on February 16 official police reports described her death and attributed it to "cardiac arrest." An autopsy was performed (from February 16 at 8.30 pm until February 17 at 1 am) which shows strong evidence of physical punishment and torture. Vanesa's friends attest that prior to her arrest she was in good health and had never shown any cardiac condition. She was periodically checked at the local hospital for her HIV condition, which was under control, with a viral count below register levels.

  Vanesa Lorena Ledesma was an activist and a member of ATUC (Asociación Travestis Unidas de Córdoba). Her friends and fellow activists attended her funeral and took pictures of her corpse. The pictures are a visual testimony of the severe physical abuse allegedly endured by Vanesa while in police custody. Two GLTB organizations (ATUC and ACODHO, Asociación Contra la Discriminación Homosexual, a local gay group) as well as two organizations working on AIDS issues (Multisectorial de Acción en SIDA and CERTUS) have presented themselves in Court asking for a full investigation of the real causes of Vanesa's death and the corresponding punishment of the officers found guilty of torturing her to death.

  Local activists reiterate that the cruel treatment inflicted on Vanesa allegedly by members of the Córdoba police is a common practice there and in thousands of police stations everywhere in the world. In the particular case of Córdoba, transvestites are vulnerable to police arrest --and/or to the demand for bribes in order to avoid arrest and the abuses that it involves -- due to outdated provisions still in force in the provincial legislation. The local Code of Misdemeanors prescribes up to 10 days of arrest for those who "disturb others, affecting their decorum through gestures or words in public places," if the "offense" take place at night, the penalty rises to up to 20 days of arrest (Title I, Chapter 1, Art. 42). A similar provision exists against those who "in public places utter words, make gestures or adopt corporal postures that are contrary to public decency" (Art. 43, same Title and Chapter). There is also a provision against "offenses that would provoke public scandal" with a penalty of 10 days in custody (Art. 51, same Title and Chapter). The offer of sex in public places is punished with until 20 days in police custody if it "disturb others or causes scandal" (scandal is not defined). HIV and STD exams and treatment are compulsive for arrested sex workers (art. 44, same Title and Chapter). Activists are concerned that these vaguely-worded articles are used selectively in order to target the transvestite population.

  The rights of persons under detention are protected by the Argentina's Constitution that specifically states that "death penalty for political causes, as well as all kinds of tortures and lashes are for ever forbidden. The Nation's prisons will be clean and healthy, for the safeguard and not the punishment of those detained in them. Any measure that would mortify them more than what precaution mandates, will render the judge who authorize it accountable" (Art. 18).

  These rights are also protected by several international covenants of which Argentina is a signatory and that have been incorporated in the country's Constitution after the 1994 reform (Art. 75- 22): Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art. 5 "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art.7 that echoes UDHR Art.5 and Art. 10 "all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person"); American Convention on Human Rights (Art. 5.1, 5.2 echoing ICCPR 10 and UDHR 5/ICCPR 7 respectively)

  The rights of HIV-positive individuals under detention are protected by the National AIDS Law (23.798/90). It contains "measures aimed at preventing (AIDS) spread into the population" but its Art. 2 states that those measures should be interpreted in such a way that it never affects "the dignity of the person; produce acts of marginalization, stigmatization, degradation or humiliation," etc. Keeping HIV-positive inmates in separate jails -in the context that it is done by the Cordoba police- violates this law.

  The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is particularly relevant to this case. Its language defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as ... punishing him for an act he ... has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him ... or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official ..." (Art. 1). The sufferings caused to Vanesa Ledesma by police officers in Cordoba fit clearly into that definition. The Argentinean government is responsible for the safety of people in custody, as established by Art. 11 of the Convention ("Each State Party shall keep under systematic review...arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment ... with a view to preventing any cases of torture"). And it is also bound to " ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed..." (Art. 12).

  The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners -which specifically apply to all prisoners without "discrimination on grounds of race ... or other status." (as in 6 (1) have also been violated in this case. In 27, the Rules state that "discipline and order shall be maintained with firmness, but with no more restriction than is necessary for safe custody and well ordered community life." Breaking bones and leaving marks all over the body are obviously abusive ways of restrain to apply to an unarmed person and by police officers who outnumber her, even if she is "psychologically altered." Scars in her body show that Vanesa was beaten while being handcuffed, a fact that dilutes the excuse that beatings were "necessary to restrain her." Moreover, as she had not been tried and sentenced yet, she -- according to Rule 84 (2) -- "(was) presumed to be innocent and (should have been) treated as such."