the police of Indonesia on Thursday denied allegations of violence by the family of a Harvard University transgender activist who died following being arrested on his honeymoon on the resort island of Bali.
Rodrigo Ventosilla32, from Peru, was detained by customs police when she arrived with her new husband, also a Peruvian, her family said in a statement this week on Instagram, accusing authorities of Bali of “police violence…racial discrimination and transphobia.”
A police spokesman from Bali told Archyde.com that Ventosilla he had been investigated for drug offenses following cannabis-derived products were found in his luggage.
Two days following his arrest, Ventosilla he was rushed to hospital and died on August 11 from “failure of bodily functions,” police spokesman Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto said.
Bayu said that Ventosilla he became ill following ingesting medication that was not part of the items seized by the police.
The family of Ventosilla he said he did not know the cause of her death, but said he was denied access to legal defense and information. Police spokesman Bayu did not respond to those accusations or to those of transphobia, but said that there was no violence and that the case was now closed.
Students and faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he studied Ventosillaechoed the family’s calls for an investigation, reported the newspaper Harvard Crimson.
Ventosilla he was a founding member of the Peruvian trans rights organization Diversidades Trans Masculinas and was pursuing a master’s degree in public administration, the Crimson reported.
Her husband had returned to Peru, his family’s statement said.
Peru’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday that it had asked Indonesian authorities to strictly follow “the human rights of its two citizens,” but added that the original detention “does not correspond to acts of racial discrimination or transphobia.” ”.
The family of Ventosilla has asked the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out a more exhaustive investigation.
Indonesia has one of the toughest drug laws in the region, with penalties that include capital punishment.
