Three women were killed and fighting for their lives after they were set on fire in an alleged homophobic attack at a Buenos Aires boarding house last week.
The local press reported that the four women were a lesbian couple and that their attacker threw a Molotov cocktail into their room.
The three deceased victims have been identified as Pamela Cobas and Mercedes Roxana Figueroa, both 52 years old, and Andrea Amarante, 42 years old.
Cobas died hours after the May 6 attack, while Figueroa died Wednesday after suffering burns to 90 percent of his body.
Amarante’s death was confirmed on Sunday. As of Monday, it was reported that the fourth victim, Sofía Castro Riglos, 49, remained hospitalized.
Three women were killed and fighting for their lives after they were set on fire in an alleged homophobic attack at a Buenos Aires boarding house last week. The three deceased victims have been identified as Pamela Cobas (right) and Mercedes Roxana Figueroa (left), both 52 years old, and Andrea Amarante, 42 years old.
The fourth victim, Sofía Castro Riglos, 49, reportedly remained in the hospital. Police sources told local media that she was responding well to treatment.
Police have not yet announced a suspected motive behind the attack, which has sparked shock and anger in Argentina.
However, local reports said the women were two pairs and suggested the attack could have been motivated by homophobia, while locals said the attacker has a history of homophobic abuse.
Cobbas and Figueroa were reportedly in a relationship, while Amarante was in a relationship with Riglos.
A statement from the Argentine LGBT Federation described the attack as “potentially one of the most abhorrent hate crimes in recent years.”
The attacker has also been identified as Justo Fernando Barrientos, 62, according to local media.
It is understood that he lived in the room next to the women of the boarding house where the attack occurred, located on Olavarría Street in the city.
Guesthouse residents who witnessed the aftermath said that when the women tried to flee their burning room, Barrientos punched and pushed them.
“When they left the room, as they were on fire, he hit them and pushed them back into the fire,” Sergio Araujo, 36, who lives on the second floor of the building, told Argentina’s LGBTQ+ news site. Presents.
Diego Brítez, 51, who also lives on the second floor, added: ‘Five of us were trying to separate him from her so he would stop hitting her.’
The passers-by managed to take the women to the showers and submerge them under the water. ‘There were several of us who tried to help them. But there were people who did not come forward to help. That makes me angry,” Araujo told the publication.
“I carried the biggest one on my back going down the stairs,” he said. ‘There he told me several times that it was him. “I feel bad because we couldn’t save them.”
According to Britez, a street vendor, Barrientos had threatened them before.
“He had already threatened them once,” she said. ‘It was last Christmas. He told them that he was going to kill (Mrs. Cobbas and Mrs. Figueroa) and look what happened now.
‘They argued a lot. They called the police once and I understand that they had reported him. He called them ‘monsters’ because of their sexuality. [orientation].’
It is understood that the aggressor lived in the room next to the women of the boarding house (in the photo) where the attack occurred, located on Olavarría Street in the city.
Pictured: Women light candles during a vigil outside the house where two lesbian women died in an alleged arson attack in the early hours of May 6.
Guesthouse residents who witnessed what happened said that when the women tried to flee the burning room, the suspect punched and pushed them.
Figueroa and Cobas had been receiving care at a hospital specializing in burn victims in the Argentine capital, while Amarante had been transferred to Penna Hospital with burns on more than half of her body.
Police sources have said that Mrs. Riglos is responding well to treatment – also at Penna Hospital, according to the Herald of Buenos Aires.
Barrientos has been detained by the police. Reports say he was found in one of the guesthouse’s bathrooms holding a saw and having injured himself in the neck.
He is charged with murder and serious injury and is under investigation.
The Herald reported that firefighters found several burned rags that had been soaked in flammable liquid.
According to local reports, the guesthouse has 20 rooms and about 30 residents.
Among them are street vendors, retirees and cardboard recyclers who share a bathroom and kitchen.
“Hate crimes are the result of a culture of violence and discrimination, sustained by hate speech currently supported by various government officials,” the Argentine LGBT Federation said in a press release after the attack.
‘The only spaces to which those of us who are victims of these attacks can resort are being emptied or eliminated by the current government, such as the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism.
“We will support them and help them and their families in whatever they need, and we will continue the case in court so that justice is done.”
Reacting to the news, Human Rights Watch said: ‘They have not yet announced the motive for the deadly crime, but hatred against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people has increased in Argentina recently. Prominent politicians, including some in high office, have been promoting such hatred.”
The human rights group pointed to a 2023 report that it said “highlighted anti-LGBT speech by members of President Javier Milei’s political party, as well as on social media and in the streets, during last year’s presidential election campaign.”
As a candidate, Milei himself attacked education on gender and sexuality in apocalyptic terms. The current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diana Mondino, compared equal marriage to lice.
He added: “The report found that growing hate speech in Argentina “built a climate of segregation, rejection and discrimination; the most fertile ground for violence against historically vulnerable groups.
Mrs. Figueroa (left) and Mrs. Cobas (right) had been receiving care at a hospital specializing in burn victims in the Argentine capital, but sadly died. They were one of two couples.
The Herald reported that Mrs. Amarante was a survivor of the Cro-Magnon tragedy.
In 2004, a fire broke out during a rock concert in Buenos Aires, killing 194 people and injuring 1,432, one of the deadliest tragedies in music history.
The victims’ association Coordinadora Cromañón in a statement: ‘Andrea was on the street and slept wherever she could.
“Twenty years later, Andrea’s worst fears and nightmares came true.”