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Mexico City prosecutors seek to reclassify trans sex worker’s killing as femicide
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Crime & Justice

Mexico City prosecutors seek to reclassify trans sex worker’s killing as femicide

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Official statement In the courts
  • Mexico City prosecutors said they would seek to reclassify the 2016 killing of trans woman Paola Buenrostro from homicide to femicide.
  • The suspect, Arturo N, was arrested after nearly a decade as a fugitive and remains in pretrial detention after an initial homicide charge.
  • Activists protested the alleged misgendering of Buenrostro and other trans women, while the city’s human rights commission had previously identified the case as the first documented transfemicide in the capital.

Nearly a decade after Paola Buenrostro was killed, Mexico City prosecutors say the case could be brought as femicide rather than homicide. The announcement followed protests by activists who alleged transphobia during the first hearing against the suspected killer.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Mexico City said the legal classification could still change during the next stages of the proceedings against Arturo N. Authorities arrested him on Monday in the State of Mexico after he had remained a fugitive for almost 10 years. He was initially brought before a judge on a homicide charge because the 2016 arrest warrant cited that offense.

During the next stages of the proceedings, the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office will strengthen the investigation and provide the necessary evidence for the judge to consider reclassifying the crime.

— Mexico City Prosecutor’s OfficeThe office said it would seek to change the charge from homicide to femicide.

Prosecutors said the criteria for proving femicide were more restrictive at the time and that Mexico City did not yet have a separate crime of transfemicide. They nevertheless acknowledged demands from Buenrostro’s family and activists, saying they would strengthen the investigation and provide the evidence needed for a judge to consider reclassifying the crime.

The possibility of reclassifying the crime as femicide in later stages remains open.

— Mexico City Prosecutor’s OfficeThe statement acknowledged that the charge could change during the proceedings.

Buenrostro, a trans sex worker, was murdered in Mexico City in September 2016. Arturo N was arrested at the scene but later released and remained at large despite the arrest warrant. In 2019, the city’s human rights commission recognized the case as the capital’s first documented transfemicide and cited investigative irregularities, including the failure to recognize Buenrostro’s gender identity.

The case later became a reference point in Mexico’s trans rights movement. In 2024, Buenrostro’s name was used to promote a reform that established transfemicide as a crime in Mexico City. The controversy returned after activists said she was identified as a man during the initial hearing and that officials used former male names for her, trans activist Kenya Cuevas and other trans women involved in the proceedings. Cuevas, who was Buenrostro’s friend, said the conduct reflected institutional transphobia. After a protest at the prosecutor’s offices, the institution said it took the allegations seriously and that mistakes in addressing victims did not meet the standards required of its staff.

We take the allegations seriously.

— Mexico City Prosecutor’s OfficeThe office responded to activists’ claims of institutional transphobia.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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