A young transgender woman named Cheo was found stabbed to death in Colonia de Tegucigalpa in Honduras on 2 January this year. Shockingly, this is only the latest in a worrying trend of hate crimes against transgender people in Latin America.

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance supports transgender groups through linking organizations in El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean. In each of these countries, we have witnessed an increase in cases of intimidation and violence, in some cases leading to murder. The Alliance previously called attention to the murder of 13 transgender people in Guatemala last year.

According to Transgender Europe, between January and June 2010 the world’s media reported 93 cases of the murder of transgender people. Eight out of ten of these murders (74 cases) occurred in Latin America.

The vulnerable position in which transgender populations find themselves in their daily lives often hinders the efforts of the leaders of transgender groups to reach their communities in order to implement measures for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

‘What’s Preventing Prevention?’ urges governments, legislators, international agencies and civil society organizations working in human rights, sexual diversity, health and HIV/AIDS to coordinate their efforts urgently to support the transgender community in these countries and to demand that the governments concerned guarantee the protection of this community and ensure that all these cases are investigated.

You can join the ‘What’s Preventing Prevention?’ discussion on Twitter by following @theaidsalliance and using the hashtag #prevHIV.

You can also stay up to date with the campaign via the Alliance’s Facebook page.