Fearing that she and her relatives were about to be attacked, Bustamente abandoned her home and business – the latest victim of intimidation and violence meted out against hundreds of human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.
The threat – which she believes was related to an article that she published about violence against LGBTQ+ people – has turned her world upside down. “Until a few days ago, my life was advising on cases of hate crimes,” said the 30-year-old transgender woman, co-founder of the LGBTQ+ rights collective Soy Humano, who fled the eastern town of Veracruz last month and is now in hiding. “Now I’m trying to lie low … my business of 10 years was gone from one day to the next.” Though Mexico has made progress on LGBTQ+