In what family members are calling an “act of racial discrimination and transphobia,” a transgender Peruvian man who was in Bali for his honeymoon died after he and his spouse were detained by Indonesian authorities at the airport for alleged drug offenses.
Rodrigo Ventosilla, 32, was an activist from Lima, Peru, and a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy School. He had recently married his partner, Sebastian Marallano, and they traveled to Bali for their honeymoon.
When Ventosilla arrived at the Denpasar airport on Aug. 6, he was detained on suspicion of drug trafficking after authorities found drugs that Ventosilla’s family said he was taking for his mental health and had a prescription for. Marallano, who had flown in on an earlier flight, was also detained when he went to help Ventosilla, the family said in a statement.
Diversidades Trans Masculinas, a Peruvian trans advocacy group that Ventosilla founded, said there was an empty cannabis grinder in one of their suitcases, which they did not realize was there.
Ventosilla’s family said that while in detention, the couple were “victims of police violence,” and alleged that authorities violated their right to legal representation and discriminated against them. Ventosilla died on Aug. 11 after being hospitalized in the ICU for organ failure, the family said.
Bali police denied any wrongdoing and told the South China Morning Post that Ventosilla had a “failure of bodily functions” after taking medication while in custody. It’s unclear what substances they were referring to. Bali police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
His family said they were unable to communicate with Ventosilla during his detention, and lawyers hired by both families were denied access. Indonesian authorities also did not allow them to order an independent autopsy on Ventosilla’s body, they said, and they don’t know the real cause of his death.
They also accused the Peruvian Consulate in Indonesia of ignoring their repeated requests for help and “neglecting its obligations” to help the couple. The family demanded that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigate the consul and his team for failing to take charge of the case from the start of the couple’s ordeal.
“The consulate’s action was late, negligent and hindered the request for help from the relatives when Rodrigo was still alive,” they said.