Thousands of people of all ages, together with LGBTI+ organizations, feminists and representatives of the European diplomatic corps, commemorated on Saturday, June 29, the International Day of LGBTI+ Pride in different streets of at least eight Latin American countries, with allusive flags, music, banners, floats and striking costumes to demand respect, inclusion and guarantee of their human rights. Below, we make a brief review of what happened.
Bolivia
The streets of downtown La Paz were filled with flags in the colors of the LGBTI+ community where hundreds of people claimed the contribution of their work to Bolivian society, their right to respect and the freedom to choose.
The batucada with young people dressed as harlequins was the signal for the march to begin in El Prado, downtown La Paz. Behind them walked lesbians, gays, transsexuals, bisexuals and intersex people with a message to the population: “We are proud of who we are.”
David Aruquipa, an activist and member of the LGBTI+ community, said that it has been 21 years since the first march that took place in La Paz to raise awareness about the rights of the sexually diverse community.
Chili
In the Chilean capital, thousands of people painted the streets in rainbow colours at the Pride march, a rally that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the country and which called for, among other things, improved anti-discrimination laws.
“In the last 25 years, Chile has advanced: in 2024 we will have 18 laws that protect LGBTI+ people and public policies in Health, Education and Work. However, in recent years violence and hate speech have worsened. We are living in complex times,” said the spokesperson for the Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement (MOVILH), Javiera Zúñiga.
With rainbow flags, protest banners and in a festive and family atmosphere, the march started from the mythical Italy Squarein the heart of Santiago, and brought together 120,000 people, according to MOVILH, one of the organizing movements.
Costa Rica
For his part, the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, dismissed this Saturday the Minister of Culture and Youth, Nayuribe Guadamuz, and the Commissioner of Social Inclusion, Ricardo Sosa, for supporting the LGBTI+ march called for June 30 in the capital San José.
“The decision was made because they processed a declaration of cultural interest for an LGBT pride march without the authorization of the president,” the Costa Rican government said in a statement. According to the note, Chaves “was not aware of this declaration,” so his dismissal is due to the fact that officials did not notify him of their decision.
The Savior
Meanwhile, thousands of activists and people from the LGBTI+ community of El Salvador marched through the main streets of the capital of the Central American country in “complicated moments,” as they expressed, to demand respect and guarantee of their rights.
The march moved smoothly until it concluded in Plaza Salvador del Mundo, where the participating groups enjoyed a party to celebrate and commemorate International LGBTI+ Pride Day, which is remembered worldwide every June 28.
According to a statement from the Expanded LGBTI+ MovementEl Salvador, in the last five years there have been a series of setbacks that affect the rights of this community in the country, such as the dissolution of the state Directorate of Sexual Diversity, the repeal of a legislative decree that prohibited all forms of discrimination based sexual orientation and gender identity.
In addition, there are restrictions on public health care and the failure of the Legislative Assembly to study or approve proposals for laws on gender identity and anti-discrimination.
Guatemala
At the same time, more than 8,000 people participated in the pride parade in Guatemala City, despite judicial attempts to prevent it from taking place and an order from the Constitutional Court that required the Police to supervise that everything will be carried out under “good customs.”
“Attempts to silence us are useless. Today we celebrate with more force and demonstrate in the streets that we resist,” he told the agency. EFE Aldo Dávila, an openly gay former congressman who participated in the walk this Saturday.
Carrying rainbow umbrellas to protect their colorful outfits and makeup from the rain, hundreds of participants marched through the historic center of the Guatemalan capital with messages defending their rights and demanding that public policies be expedited to protect them.
Mexico
Hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico painted the main streets of the country’s capital with the colors of diversity, where they once again made themselves visible, and demanded inclusion and respect for their rights from future authorities.
Some of the participating groups in the Pride March or Pride They took the opportunity to demand that the president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, continue to promote inclusion and sexual diversity, in the midst of the historic governmental transition that the country is experiencing with the future first woman in the Presidency.
Representatives of the organizing committee presented the future mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, with a list of requests in which they asked for a capital government and a Mexican state that would fulfill their duty to protect the lives and rights of the community.
Peru
For their part, thousands of people joined the Pride March LGBTI+ in the center of Lima, called by a group from this community that recalled that 100 years ago homosexuality was decriminalized in Peru.
With slogans calling for the “pride” and “resistance” of the community LGBTI+Hundreds of young people moved from Campo de Marte, in the Jesús María district, to several streets in the historic center, in buses decorated with flags, balloons and multi-colored signs.
Among the organizations that joined the march were companies, embassies and groups that fight for the rights of this community in the country. The LGBT Pride March Collective carried the slogan 100 years Resistingreferring to the same number of years in which homosexuality was decriminalized in the country.
Panama
Community LGBTI+ Panamanians also celebrated their participation in the Pride March as having made progress in conquering political and democratic spaces to gain visibility and demand their rights, said activist Iván Chanis.
This is how Chanis pointed out EFE the fact that, although Panama is one of the few countries in the hemisphere where “no rights” are recognized for LGBTI people, this movement has “made great progress in terms of political participation and demands for democratic spaces” in the Central American country. . A test that confirms this “is being able today, Saturday, June 29, to walk freely through the streets of Panama City, saying here we are, we are visible, we need rights and we are going to conquer them.”
Paraguay
Community groups LGBTI+ and thousands of people marched on Saturday in Asunción to demand the right to equal marriage from the Government of Paraguay, and reject the country’s “conservative” position on gender issues in international forums such as the Organization of American States (OAS).
Several blocks of the center of Asunción were filled with people wearing bright, multicolored outfits and raising diversity flags high to be noticed on Pride Day in Paraguay. “The main motivation is the claim that we are making to the Governments regarding equal marriage, since Paraguay is the only country in the Mercosur that does not guarantee this type of union,” Martín Vera, former executive director of We are Gaythe organization that has organized the traditional demonstration for 15 years.
Vera announced that he will complain to the Parliament of Mercosur -the deliberative assembly that integrates Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay- that in their country “nothing is being done to guarantee basic rights” such as civil union between people of the same sex and a life without discrimination.
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