The Aguascalientes Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that Jesús Ociel Baena was found dead yesterday morning next to another person, identified by local media and LGBTQ+ rights groups as their partner. This was announced by the AP news agency.
Knife stabbing
Public prosecutor Jesús Figueroa Ortega said at a news conference that the victims showed injuries apparently caused by a knife or other sharp object.
Mexican Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez added that authorities were investigating the death and it was still unclear whether it “was a homicide or an accident.”
Ociel Baena was the first non-binary person in Mexico to take up a position in a judicial position. Ociel Baena worked at the electoral court of Aguascalientes, the state where he had lived since 2012.
Judicial position
Baena made history in October 2022 when he was appointed magistrate of the Electoral Court of the State of Aguascalientes. Baena became the first non-binary person in all of Latin America to take a judicial position.
Baena regularly posted photos and videos of herself in skirts, heels and holding a rainbow fan in court. On various social media platforms, Baena advocated for the acceptance of non-binary people.
Last May, Ociel Baena became the first person to receive a passport from the Secretary of State in Mexico without the male/female gender specification.
‘Accept it’
“I am a non-binary person, and have no interest in being seen as a man or a woman. This is an identity. It is mine, for me, and no one else,” Baena posted on X in June. “Accept it”.
Alejandro Brito, director of LGBTQ+ rights group Letra S, said it was Baena’s visibility on social media that made them targets. Brito has urged authorities to also consider this context in their investigation.
2023-11-13 23:32:54
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