Harvard Grad Student Dies in Bali From Police Brutality Over Cannabis Arrest
Rodrigo Ventocilla, 32, a Harvard Kennedy School (hks) graduate student from Peru, died on August 11 while under police custody at a hospital in Denpasar, Indonesia under what the family calls suspicious circumstances. Ventosilla, a trans man, was arrested for possession of cannabis while traveling to Bali to celebrate his honeymoon.
The HKS and trans communities are pleading for help in highlighting the injustice and human rights violations that allegedly took place last month in Bali, with allegations of police brutality and torture. Police took Ventocilla to Bhayangkara Hospital after he suffered stomach pain and vomiting, according to Radar Bali. But his condition deteriorated, and he was transported to the Sanglah Central General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on August 11 at around 3:10 p.m. The family is asking the Peruvian Foreign Ministry to conduct an investigation into the actions of Julio Eduardo Tenorio Pereyra, the head of consular services for the Peruvian Embassy in Indonesia.
It’s just the latest cannabis-related crime in Bali in which the punishments don’t seem to fit the crime by Western standards.
The HKS and trans communities are pleading for help in highlighting the injustice and human rights violations that allegedly took place last month in Bali, with allegations of police brutality and torture. Police took Ventocilla to Bhayangkara Hospital after he suffered stomach pain and vomiting, according to Radar Bali. But his condition deteriorated, and he was transported to the Sanglah Central General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on August 11 at around 3:10 p.m. The family is asking the Peruvian Foreign Ministry to conduct an investigation into the actions of Julio Eduardo Tenorio Pereyra, the head of consular services for the Peruvian Embassy in Indonesia.
It’s just the latest cannabis-related crime in Bali in which the punishments don’t seem to fit the crime by Western standards.