A trans woman was brutally killed and her hand amputated and placed in her mouth in Brazil last week (4 May).

Police found Melissa Feitosa Borges on the Friday afternoon in a thicket behind a wall in Vila São João, Vacabal, Brazil, Viríginia Barroso reported.

The assailant, José Ferreira, confessed to the killing just under a day later. São Paulo courts imprisoned him for an earlier time to await a ruling on this alleged crime.

Brazilian media have referred to her as a ‘crossdresser’. However, Trans Violence News confirmed to Gay Star News that she identified as a trans woman.

What happened?

According to his testimony, Ferreira was in a relationship with Borges. However, he alleges that when he broke up with her, she refused to accept it.

As a result, she threatened to kill him, he claimed.

However, at around 3pm, Ferreira brutally killed Borges. It is alleged he stabbed her. He left her in a shrub behind the court of Sports Councilor Joãozinho, in Vila São João.

Authorities have not concluded what the cause of death was. But Borges was without clothing and her left hand amputated and placed in her mouth.

Locals found Borges at around 5.30pm, with the police deployed and the body taken to hospital.

A day later, Ferreira went to police in the city of Pio XII, in the state of Maranhão in the Northeast region of Brazil.

He directly confessed to the killing of Borges and officers took him to the Santa Ines Regional Police Station, Santa Inês.

Courts sentenced the 29-year-old to a prison in Piratininga, in the state of São Paulo.

Trans rights in Brazil

Over the past decade, Brazil’s trans population secured several civil rights victories in the courts. For example, since 2018, trans people are now free to change their legal name and gender.

But as trans people gained new rights, Brazil grew more conservative. It culminated with the electing of Jai Bolsonarao as president. Many LGBTI groups fear his presidency will give new life to bills calling for courts to revoke or curtail their rights.

It’s already started, however. Damares Alves, the evangelical pastor who serves as Bolsonaro’s minister of women and family, declared on her first day in office that in Brazil, ‘girls wear pink, and boys wear blue.’

Whereas Bolsonaro’s minister of education, Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez, shut down a section of the ministry devoted to diversity and human rights.

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