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In September 2023 I traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, invited to participate in the International Congress of Human Rights, an organization made up of several universities in Mexico and Spain committed to the promotion and defense of Human Rights. My participation included a lecture on the subject that is my obsession: democracy with democrats, that is, a participatory citizen culture without which we can hardly speak of a full democracy. However, less than two months after my return from Guadalajara, I received the news of the death of jurist Jesús Ociel Baena Salcedo, with whom I shared the panel on hate speech. I was shocked by his presence, which tested the true respect for a person who presented himself as a "magistrade", wearing a jacket and tie with a skirt and high heels.
His training as a jurist, his defense of the political and electoral rights of non-binary people came to the forefront. But above all, his personal testimony of suffering since he decided to live honestly with his perception of being non-binary was moving. Although he had already received death threats, he was a recognized and respected voice of the LGBT movement in Mexico, which today is experiencing the shock of Ociel's murder.
Sorrow for his death, for the loss of a person with a solid electoral legal background, and fear because it threatens the hope of the members of the movement to be able to live in the light of day, without having to hide.
I convey my solidarity with the feeling of grief and shock caused in Mexico by the loss of a being who made of his existence a testimony in favor of life, equality and respect for differences, the basis and sustenance of the legal philosophy of human rights.
In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the biblical Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is sad to note that in large parts of our planet, the exercise of human rights is paid for with life.
