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image source, Courtesy of Harvard University.
Rodrigo Ventocilla had traveled to Bali to spend his honeymoon.
The young Peruvian Rodrigo Ventocilla died in police custody on the tourist island of Bali, Indonesia, on August 11.
Ventocilla, 32, a transgender activist and student at Harvard University in the US, was detained at Bali’s Denpasar-Ngurah airport on August 6.
According to a Bali Police spokesman, customs officers found suspicious items in his luggage and he was arrested for suspected drug possession.
He died five days later in the hospital to which the police had transferred him following he began to vomit, according to local media reports.
“mistreatment”
The family issued a statement denying the official version and accused the Indonesian police of mistreating Ventocilla and prevent access to the lawyer who had been assigned to him.
The family described the arrest of the young Peruvian as “act of racial discrimination and transphobia” and assured that the products in his luggage that aroused the suspicions of the officials were “related to his mental health treatment, for which he had a medical prescription.”
Ventocilla had traveled to Bali to enjoy her honeymoon with her husband, Sebastián Marellano, who arrived on a different flight and was also arrested when she tried to help her husbandaffirms the statement of the family.
The family denounced that the Bali Police demanded “exorbitant amounts of money” in exchange for the release of the two Peruvians. According to the family version, both were admitted to a hospital on August 9. Ventocilla was then transferred to another where he eventually passed away.
The police spokesman stated that he was hospitalized following consuming drugs that were not intervened in the search that led to his arrest and died of “organ failure throughout his body.” But the family accuses the Indonesian authorities of not allowing an independent examination of the body and assures that the causes of death have not been clarified.
image source, Getty Images
Ventocilla had traveled to Bali for her honeymoon.
His relatives denounced that they were prevented from entering the hospital and that they were never able to communicate with him or find out regarding his diagnosis and state of health.
They also denounced abandonment by the person in charge of the Peruvian Consulate in Bali, who did not respond to their messages.
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry has rejected the family version of events and denies that the arrest of the two men was an act of discrimination and transphobia.
In a statement, he stated that the Indonesian authorities informed the Consulate in Bali that the arrest would have occurred following “objects containing traces of cannabis, as well as various products made with said substance” were found in his luggage.
The Foreign Ministry emphasizes that “it is public knowledge” that Indonesia maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding drug possession.
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