Peruvian Trans Activist Dies in Police Custody in Bali
A transgender student from Peru has died in police custody in Bali after being arrested at Denpasar airport. Rodrigo Ventocilla, 32, was detained August 6 while going through customs after agents searched his luggage and found what they deemed to be “suspicious items,” the BBC reports.
He died August 11, having been hospitalized two days earlier for severe vomiting.Ventocilla was a prominent transgender rights activist and a founder of the Peruvian advocacy group Diversidades Trans Masculinas.
He was a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy School who traveled to Bali with his husband, Sebastián Marallano, for their honeymoon.
Marallano was not present at the time of the arrest but was later detained for attempting to aid Ventocilla in the days before his death.Since Ventocilla’s death, his family has alleged Bali law enforcement discriminated against him as a transgender man.
