Ventocilla RodrigoM

Peruvian economist, trans man and transgender rights activist who died in suspicious circumstances on 11 August 2022 while in police custody at the Sanglah General Hospital in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, after being arrested five days earlier by the Indonesian police accused of drug trafficking. Ventocilla was in the Asian country celebrating his honeymoon after marrying Sebastián Marellano. Ventocillas family denounced the police actions as a case of racial discrimination and transphobia, while the Foreign Ministry of Peru maintained the official account of the Indonesian authorities. Rodrigo Ventocilla Ventosilla was a 32-year-old Peruvian economist who was studying a postgraduate degree in public administration in international development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard Kennedy School). He was a founding member of the Peruvian organization Diversidades Trans Masculinas, and the Executive of the Bicentennial Schools Project in Lima of the Ministry of Education. In addition, before getting married, he did an internship in Johannesburg, South Africa. In May 2022, Rodrigo Ventocilla married fellow trans-bisexual activist Sebastián Marallano in Chile, a country where same-sex marriage is legal. To celebrate the marriage, they decided on a honeymoon trip to Bali, Indonesia. They arrived at their destination on separate flights. Rodrigo arrived at Denpasar International Airport on a Qatar Airways flight on 6 August and was detained by police on drug trafficking charges for allegedly transporting illicit substances. According to the account of the police authorities, issued after Ventocillas death, his arrest was due to marijuana residue being detected among his belongings. The head of public relations for the Bali police reported that two pills were found in his luggage in a container labelled "Genuis" and another package containing what they suspected was marijuana brownies. The police stated that after his arrest, Ventocilla ingested drugs not seized by the authorities, and that later, on the night of 8 August, Ventocilla suffered a decompensation and began to vomit, for which he was transferred to the Bhayangkara hospital for treatment. In the early hours of 9 August, he began to convulse and was transferred to Sanglah General Hospital, where they could not stabilize him due to his medical history, according to health personnel. Rodrigo Ventocilla passed away at 3:10 p.m. on 11 August. The result of the autopsy, carried out a week later, determined that he died of kidney, liver and nervous system failure. According to The Bali Sun newspaper, the Bali police have launched an investigation into "the death of a Peruvian woman", but did not clarify whether the focus was on alleged drug trafficking or his death in police custody. On 23 August, Ventocillas family published a statement addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denouncing the facts and the helplessness they suffered from the consular authorities in dealing with the case. The statement reported that Marallano, arriving in Indonesia on a separate flight, was also arrested while trying to help his spouse, and was also hospitalized after his arrest. That same day, Dean Elmendorf signed another statement supporting the family of Ventocilla and Marallano and calling for the prompt clarification of the facts. The family also demanded that an independent autopsy be carried out. According to the family, the pills that the police seized among Ventocillas belongings Read less