| Tehuel de la Torre | |
| Birth Date: | 26 March 1999 |
| Disappeared Place: | San Vicente, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Height: | 1.56 m[1] |
Tehuel de la Torre (pronounced as /es/; born 26 March 1999) is an Argentine trans man who disappeared in the afternoon of 11 March 2021 when he left his home in San Vicente, Buenos Aires, heading for Alejandro Korn to meet Luis Alberto Ramos (37), who had offered him a job as a waiter at a birthday party.[2] [3] His whereabouts remain unknown.[4]
De la Torre was born on 26 March 1999.[5] At the time of his disappearance, he lived in San Vicente, Buenos Aires, with his mother, his partner and her son, and his brother. De la Torre had started his gender transitioning a few months before his disappearance.[6]
On 11 March 2021, De la Torre left his home heading for Alejandro Korn to meet Luis Alberto Ramos, a 37-year-old man whom he had met at several Workers' Socialist Movement rallies. Ramos had offered him a job as a waiter at a birthday party. On 13 March, his family reported his disappearance to the police. A destroyed phone and jacket belonging to De la Torre were found in a raid to Ramos' house on 16 March.[7]
On Saturday March 13, his girlfriend Luciana first went to the 1st police station of San Vicente to file a missing person's report. She was initially rejected, but after returning with an older neighbor, she was able to obtain a report. She stated that they originally did not want to take her report because she was 17.
The investigation is assigned to Karina Guyot, prosecutor of the Decentralized Fiscal Unit of San Vicente.[8]
A destroyed phone and clothes belonging to Tehuel were found in the first raids of the Ramos's house on March 16.[9]
On March 18, after learning of Tehuel's disappearance, the Department of Gender and Diversity Policies of the Municipality of San Vicente intervened and contacted the family.
On March 23, Luis Alberto Ramos was arrested in Dock Sud; he had shaved his hair and deleted the content of his mobile phone. He refused to testify.
Oscar Alfredo Montes (46), a friend of Ramos, was arrested on 27 March. A picture of the three taken in Montes' house the day of the disappearance was found on 30 March. It was saved in Tehuel's Gmail account at 8:42 p.m. on the day of his disappearance.
On April 5, Minister Estela Díaz of the Ministry of Women, Gender Policies and Sexual Diversity of the Province of Buenos Aires, met with Tehuel's family and the ministerial team, giving her commitment to closely follow the investigation.
On April 21, the Ministry of Security, through the Provincial Directorate of Registry of Missing Persons, offers a reward of between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 pesos to those who can provide data to find Tehuel's whereabouts.
On May 26, after different testimonies within the framework of the investigation, a search was carried out with tactical divers and specialized personnel in Alejandro Korn's Mirin lagoon, close to the Ramos and Montes homes.
On June 3, searches were carried out at an ecopoint and on a CEAMSE property near the Ramos and Montes homes, giving negative results.
On June 10, a raid was carried out at the house of a neighbor of Ramos in the La Nueva Esperanza neighborhood. That same day, a woman reported having seen a person similar to Tehuel in Caleta Olivia, so the prosecutor's office sent an appeal for a sticker with his face to be made in the city.
On June 11, two searches are carried out; one on the CEAMSE property in the city of José León Suárez, and another in the home of "Agüita" (friend of the detainees), in Alejandro Korn.
On June 15, there are raids and searches in a butcher in the neighborhood La Esperanza.
On July 22, the minister of the Ministry of National Security, Sabina Frederic, met with Andrés and Ailén de la Torre, father and sister of Tehuel, in order to evaluate progress in the case and provide search tools together with the Argentine Federal Police and the Federal Search System for Missing and Lost Persons (SIFEBU).[10]
On August 13, through resolution number 1224/21, the Ministry of Security of the Province of Buenos Aires doubled the reward (from 2 million to 4 million pesos) for those who could provide valid information that contributes to the whereabouts of Tehuel
On 10 September a bloodstain belonging to De la Torre was found on a wall in Ramos' house.[11]
On 9 November, Ramos and Montes were charged with aggravated homicide due to hatred of gender identity – a change from the original classification – and the prosecution took the case to trial.[12] [13]
In March 2022, a year after his disappearance, the Ministry of Security increased the reward to 5 million pesos (around US$36,000 in August 2022) for information about his whereabouts.[14]
At the end of 2021, Alberto Ramos's house was demolished.[15]
On March 11, 2022, one year after the disappearance, the Ministry of Security increased the reward to 5 million pesos for information about Tehuel's whereabouts.[16]
The charges brought forth by the family are divided into two parts: On the one hand, there are Norma, his mother, and Verónica Alarcón, his older sister, represented by lawyer Alejandro Valle, focusing on prosecuting the suspects. Tehuel's father, Andrés de la Torre, is represented by lawyers Marcela Mancini and Vanesa Vargas, who are part of the Collective of Translesbofeminist Lawyers, who question that the prosecutor's office focuses the investigation on the search for a body.[17]
On July 17, Montes gave a false statement confirmed by the Prosecutor's Office in which he provided false and incorrect data.
On November 9, Ramos and Montes appear for investigation and give a statement, after which the prosecutor's office decides to charge them with homicide aggravated by hatred of gender identity, a change from the original qualification.[18] [19]
On March 12, 2022, Martín Rizzo, Judge of Guarantees of Cañuelas, brought to trial the case of homicide aggravated by hatred of sexual orientation and gender identity against Tehuel De la Torre. Luis Alberto Ramos and Oscar Alfredo Montes were tried for the homicide of Tehuel (article 80 of the Penal Code) with the aggravating circumstance of hatred of gender identity, thus judging them as a hate crime (section 4). The court accepts the splitting of the case, with the aim of continuing the search for Tehuel.
The case of the disappearance of Tehuel de la Torre has had social repercussions at the national level in Argentina, which has become a cause of struggle for the LGBT movement, particularly for the population of trans men. The group Autoconvocadxs por Tehuel has also been created, which concentrates the dissemination of the cause and the call for various activities.[20]
The case has caught the attention of adherents to LGBT organizations and public figures like Quimey Ramos and Florencia de la V and human rights organizations like the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights,[21] the Center for Legal and Social Studies,[22] CORREPI,[23] as well as various political parties such as the Worker's Left Front,[24] and syndicates such as FEDUBA [25] and the State Worker's Association.[26]
The case of Tehuel's disappearance was taken up by the news channels due to activism. It was sometimes approached in a discriminatory manner and associating it with criminalization, pathologization and with a perspective of distrust on the victim's life.[27]
On March 26, 2021, coinciding with Tehuel's 22nd birthday, the first vigil was held in San Vicente.
On April 11, 2021, a tweet thread was made for Tehuel. One month after his disappearance, the organizations that support the cause carried out a dissemination activity on the social network Twitter. The next day, a national call was made through LGBT organizations to gather in all the squares and public spaces of the country to demand their search and appearance alive.
On May 11, the second vigil took place by family members, neighbors and self-organized people.
On June 11 and August 11, after three and five months without Tehuel, vigils are organized in different squares of the country.
On March 11, 2022 at 7 p.m., commemorating one year since his disappearance, a march was held calling for his appearance and justice in Alejandro Korn, which had the support of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity.
In addition, a mural in memory of Tehuel was placed at the San Vicente Station Cultural Center.[28]