A prominent trans activist in Chile has been revealed as a child sex offender after unsuccessfully petitioning a court to hide his past. María López Barrera, formerly known as Rodrigo Alejandro López Barrera, claimed any media discussion of his disturbing history of child sexual assault was a violation of his rights.
López Barrera has been active in Chile’s LGBT scene for decades, and began campaigning for “transvestite rights” under his birth name in the early 2000s after he was made the president of the Aconcagua chapter of TravesChile.
In January of 2004, López Barrera was the subject of an Amnesty International notice condemning the authorities in Chile for not doing more to protect the rights of trans activists. The notice revealed that he had been threatened and shot at in December of 2003, and suggested it was in retaliation to complaints López Barrera had filed complaining about discrimination against transvestites in the region.
Using masculine pronouns for López Barrera, Amnesty went on to demand that “authorities to take immediate steps to ensure his safety, so that he can continue his legitimate work with TravesChile without fear of harassment.”
But just one month after the Amnesty notice was published, López Barrera would be arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a young boy and infecting him with HIV. At the time, López Barrera worked at a brothel called Tower 10, and met the 14-year-old boy when he came to find his mother, who was being prostituted in the building.
According to Fuerza Informativa Aconcagua (Radio Aconcagua), López Barrera pulled the child into a room and locked the door. The boy screamed for his mother and fought against López Barrera, but was overpowered and brutally anally raped by him. The child would later be diagnosed with HIV as a result of the assault.
López Barrera was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he served in different male facilities both in the north and south of Chile. He reportedly had extreme behavioral issues during his incarceration, resulting in him consistently losing various inmate privileges, and even attempted to sue the state for housing him with other men. In 2015, López Barrera was allowed to alter his name and legal sex, a change that would have required the approval of a court as Chile’s Gender Identity Law had not yet come into force.
After being released from prison in 2019, López Barrera renewed his trans activism and quickly regained prominence in the LGBT community. Today, he acts as the director of both the Organization for Diverse Women and Aconcagua’s LGTB Housing Committee, which manages a substantial amount of state funds. In these capacities, he regularly meets with politicians and lobbies for legislative changes that favor the LGBT community.
Throughout 2024, López Barrera hosted “solidarity lunches” for a government-funded initiative titled “Diversity in your Neighborhood: All Together.” During a closing ceremony intended to mark the end of the project, López Barrera hosted multiple politicians, including the Regional Councilor of the Province of San Felipe and the Regional Councilor for the Province of San Felix of Aconcagua.
But despite maintaining a robust public profile as an advocate, López Barrera filed for an order of protection last year, demanding the court prohibit press from being able to reveal his previous name or details on the child rape he had committed in 2004. While the request was initially granted by the Court of Valparaíso, the decision was challenged by Fuerza Informativa Aconcagua (FIA), a small news outlet and radio station operating out of López Barrera’s region of San Felipe.
On January 1, the Supreme Court accepted FIA’s appeal, ruling that Barrera did not have a right to prohibit media from reporting on his criminal past.
“In summary, the magistrates pointed out that the 15-year sentence that López Barrera had served for having raped and infected a minor with HIV, is a public fact,” FIA stated. “Commenting on it in media does not violate López Barrera’s rights, since it is done in an informative way and arouses citizen interest.”
FIA stated they had reached out to multiple politicians and public officials who had supported López Barrera to question their reaction to the revelations of his past, and while some denied any knowledge of his sex offense, others refused to comment. FIA also notes that because it has been more than 20 years since López Barrera was convicted, he no longer appears on the National Registry of Pedophiles and effectively has a “clean” criminal record.
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