The young Eduardo García and his boyfriend decided to go to Paseo Xolotlán to spend a moment together and talk on Tuesday, October 11, at night. They had not even an hour after arriving at the tourist site in old Managua when they experienced an attack of homophobia. A security guard told them that they had to leave because they kissed, the excuse is that there were children present, García denounced to Article 66.
Garcia, 27, and his partner told the security guard that they would not leave the place because they were not committing any crime and that other couples of men and women also kissed each other, but they were not expelled because they were heterosexual. Faced with the refusal of the young people, the security guard called about seven companions to expel them from Paseo Xolotlán.
In a video filmed by the young couple, the group of security agents is seen who demanded at all times not to be recorded, but García told them that he was doing it to have proof of the discrimination and homophobic attack of which they were victims. in a public place.
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«I am not committing a crime before the law, I am going to take this (video) before the administration of the place. I am being attacked by you. This is an assault: telling me to get out of a public place to which I have access as a citizen,” the young man complained to the group of agents.
“You can be here, but you can’t be with another man doing things. Here is a park to come to recreate, how are they going to come to do things? We are not discriminating against you for what you are doing, we are simply reminding you that this is a place where children come,” one of the guards at the tourist center told him.
“You can be here, but keep your distance. You can go complain wherever you want. We are not public figures so that they are recording us. It is not forbidden for homosexual people to be here, what is prohibited is that they are together or touching each other, “continued the security agent.
García assures that kissing is not an improper act or punishable by law, that they are boyfriends and that is why they could kiss. The first security agent told him, according to the complainant, that they were a two-man couple and that was the reason why they had to leave the site. “I told him that (the expulsion) was an act of homophobia, discrimination and intolerance,” he said.
“I am upset and outraged because it is violence, an outrage and it is a bad time that I do not wish on anyone. I do not wish it to anyone. I will file a complaint with the authorities of the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (Intur), “Garcia assured Article 66.
According to him Observatory of human rights violations of LGBTIQ+ people in Nicaragua, from January to June 2022, 25 events against sexual diversity have been documented: 23 are assaults and two are hate crimes, March is the month in which the most events were recorded. The attacks were committed against 10 trans women, eight homosexuals, four lesbians, a bisexual man, a bisexual woman and a non-binary person.
Managua was the department where the most homophobic attacks were registered with 11, followed by Matagalpa with five and the South Caribbean with three. Most of the events were recorded in the homes of the victims and on public roads. Family members, strangers and the National Police are the main perpetrators of homophobia.
