The president of Mocha Celis on juvenile offenders: "We don't want Milei's reduction of accountability, we want them to take a collective gender course"
The Argentinais undergoing a profound transformation in terms of criminal accountability. After years of judicial laxity, the juvenile criminal reform promoted by the Government of Javier Milei has reduced the age of accountability to 14 years, establishing the foundations for underage offenders to be held accountable before the Justice for their violent acts. However, the restoration of law and order faces fierce resistance from leftist activism, whose leaders prioritize victimizing juvenile offenders. The most scandalous episode of this debate was exposed after the violent events recorded in the Palermo Woods, in the City of Buenos Aires. Far from calling for the appropriate criminal punishment for the attackers, the president of the Mocha Celis Civil Association, Virginia Silveira, appeared on the leftist streaming channel Futurock to openly oppose the imprisonment of those responsible.
In a controversial statement, the leader said: "We do not want those who attacked the trans people to go to jail. We do not want the reduction of accountability by Milei. We want them to take a collective gender course so they can be educated and no longer harm anyone". With this stance, the leadership of that trans group seeks to halt the legal tool of the National Government that will allow for the criminal prosecution of the attackers, intending to replace prison sentences with a nefarious gender course.
The attack on transvestites in Palermo
The events that sparked the controversy occurred on Sunday night near the Regatas Lake, a well-known red-light district in the Palermo Woods where trans sex workers gather. At the site, a group of young people on bicycles, composed of slum dwellers and teenagers, carried out an ambush using sticks, stones, and traffic cones. The assault left a toll of at least 6 victims with minor injuries.
The attack was characterized by its premeditation, being recorded on video and disseminated on digital social networks by the attackers themselves with messages like “run off the trannies” and “they now call me the trans killer”, accompanied by laughing emojis. Currently, judicial authorities are investigating the case to identify those involved, who, thanks to the regulations of the Javier Milei government, will not be able to hide behind their minority age to avoid legal consequences.
The aggression, perpetrated just days before the LGBT+ Pride March scheduled for this Saturday in the Argentine capital, provoked various reactions. The LGBT+ Defender's Office of the city filed a criminal complaint, while the Argentine LGBT+ Federation issued a statement asserting: "We will not tolerate violence or impunity. We have filed a criminal complaint demanding justice and the immediate clarification of the facts. In the face of hatred and attacks, our response is organization and presence in the streets". Meanwhile, the organization Amnesty International urged that the events "must be investigated with a gender perspective, considering the possible discriminatory motivation and ensuring the protection of the victims. No one should be afraid to go out on the street for being who they are".
The LGBT group, Mocha Celis
The case also generated repercussions in the artistic sphere. The singer Tini Stoessel expressed on her digital platforms: "They went out to hunt trans people in the Palermo woods. To hunt them. How long? How many more times are we going to have to go out and condemn the same thing? How much longer are we going to have to keep explaining that no one deserves to be pursued, harmed, or live in fear?". These statements were joined by the positions of Lali Espósito, María Becerra, and Emilia Mernes.
At the same time, the National Observatory of LGBT Hate Crimes released its annual report, counting 227 crimes attributed to sexual orientation or gender identity in Argentina during the last year, a figure that represents an increase of almost 60% compared to the previous period, with 62% of the cases concentrated in trans women.
The document questioned the official policies initiated at the end of 2023, labeling them as "a regression of rights process initiated with the change of Government" under President Javier Milei, focused on the "systematic dismantling of public policies aimed at protecting sexual diversity and the withdrawal of the State from its role as a guarantor of equality and non-discrimination". The report added that "the abrupt increase in hate crimes cannot be analyzed in isolation or out of context. Violence does not arise in a vacuum: it is produced, enabled, and reproduced in a specific political, institutional, and social framework".
