Karla Valentina Camarena del Castillo, also known as Valentina Ferrety, was a widely recognised defender of the rights of LGBTIQ+ communities in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. She was the coordinator of the first Gay March in the city of Salamanca and led the struggle to recognise the gender identity of the trans community in Guanajuato. She was also coordinator of the National Mexican Network of Trans Women in Guanajuato.
On Sunday, 29 March 2020 unknown assailants shot and killed human rights defender Karla Camarena in San Felipe, Guanajuato, Mexico. Her body was not identified until Tuesday, 31 March 2020.
The transphobic feminicide of Karla Camarena is yet another expression of the high risk situation experienced by trans defenders in Mexico and the entire Mesoamerican region. This is mainly due to the conditions of discrimination, precariousness and violence they face because of their gender-based sexual identity and their work in defense of the rights of sexual diversity.
Source: IM-Defensoras
Karla is one of 4 trans women human rights defenders killed in México in 2020 alone, and featured on the HRD Memorial. The three other trans women human rights defenders killed in 2020 from Mexico are; Dr. María Elizabeth Montaño (June 2020), Jeanine Huerta López (August 2020) and Mireya Rodríguez Lemus (September 2020).