Activists blame Argentina's government after three gay women killed in arson attack [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Activists blame Argentina’s government after three gay women killed in arson attack

Four women were set on fire in Buenos Aires in alleged hate crime as demonstrators accuse Milei of promoting intolerance

Harriet Barber in Buenos Aires
Wed 15 May 2024 18.44 BST
Last modified on Thu 16 May 2024 08.13 BST

Activists in Argentina have accused the country’s far-right government of stoking homophobia after an alleged hate crime in which four gay women were set on fire, killing three and seriously injuring the fourth.

A man in his 60s is alleged to have thrown burning rags into the women’s shared bedroom of a boarding house in Buenos Aires early on 6 May.

Neighbors say they were woken by the women’s screams as an inferno ripped through the building. The suspect, Justo Fernando Barrientos, is alleged to have fought with the women in an attempt to stop them escaping the flames, before fleeing to the roof where he attempted suicide, and was later arrested.

Pamela Fabiana Cobas, 52, died almost immediately. Her partner, Mercedes Roxana Figueroa, also 52, suffered burns on more than 90% of her body and died of organ failure two days later. Andrea Amarante, 42, suffered burns on more than 75% of her body and died on 12 May.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/15/argentina-boarding-house-arson-attack