ANTI-TRANS NECROPOLITICS: STATE COMPLICITY IN THE CRIME OF TRANSFEMICIDE

Resumo

This article examines the complicity of the Mexican state in the systemic violence and impunity surrounding transfemicides—the targeted killings of transgender women. Despite constitutional mandates to protect citizens, state institutions, including law enforcement and the judiciary, exhibit alarming inefficiency and corruption, resulting in near-total impunity for these crimes. Drawing on statistical data, case studies, and theoretical frameworks such as necropolitics and biopower, the analysis reveals how the state perpetuates violence against marginalized groups, particularly racialized transgender women, by failing to investigate crimes, dismissing victims, and reinforcing structural inequalities rooted in colonialism and capitalism. The discussion highlights the intersections of gender identity, race, and class in shaping vulnerability to violence, emphasizing the state’s role in legitimizing these hierarchies through policy inaction and institutional neglect. By scrutinizing emblematic cases like the transfemicide of Paola Buenrostro and the activism of Kenya Cuevas, the article underscores the state’s necropolitical function in determining which lives are deemed disposable. The findings challenge official narratives of equality and justice, exposing a reality where transgender women face systemic erasure and violence with no recourse to protection or accountability. The study concludes with urgent calls for societal mobilization and institutional reform to dismantle the structures enabling transfemicides and demand justice for victims.