EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of As Equals, CNN’s ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs.
The warnings were impossible to ignore. For over a year, armed groups in northern Colombia had posted flyers touting violent campaigns against members of the LGBTQ community.
“All will be military targets. We will not respect ages. We have already made progress in intelligence work and many have been identified,” warned one flyer in the coastal region of Guajira, dated March 2024, that included a kill list of specific individuals. It warned of a broader attack to come against “sexual depravities in the region: homosexuals, lesbians, rapists, trans.”
These were not empty threats. Even amid the bloodshed of Colombia’s decades-long civil war, the repeated killings of queer folk stood out for their calculated brutality. This April, trans woman Sara Millerey became a household name in the country, after cell phone footage went viral showing her clinging to a riverbank in churning water, in the outskirts of Medellin.
The 32-year-old’s limbs had been broken before she was thrown into the water, and she appeared to be convulsing in pain. It was the middle of the afternoon in a busy area, but local authorities say her attackers instructed bystanders not to intervene. She died of her injuries the next day.
