Gay cook murdered in Puerto Montt: hate crime reported

By Víctor Hugo Robles. Aliro Andrade Almonacid, a 64-year-old gay chef, was found dead in his home in Puerto Montt, southern Chile, on March 7, murdered by blows and strangulation. According to his family, the main suspect in Aliro's murder is a person who lived at the victim's house for a few days and…

March 12, 2019

By Víctor Hugo Robles

Aliro Andrade Almonacid, a 64-year-old gay chef, was found dead in his home in Puerto Montt, southern Chile, on March 7. He had been beaten and strangled. According to his family, the main suspect in Aliro's murder is someone who lived at the victim's house for a few days, but whose identity is unknown. "The investigation begins this week," his niece, Yajaira Andrade, told Presentes . This is the third attack on an LGBT person in Chile in less than a month.

Presentes contacted lawyer Nathalie Yonsson, the prosecutor in charge of the case classified as "homicide," who, through the communications department of the Los Lagos Regional Prosecutor's Office, stated that "she has ongoing investigations, but given their nature and the need for their success, she will not be issuing any statements at this time." The prosecutor did not clarify whether her decision was due to a "secrecy order" or an investigative strategy, but the victim's family, especially her niece and family spokesperson, María Eugenia Ignao Andrade, expressed their approval of Yonsson's appointment.

Claudia Acuña, a long-time leader of the organization TravesChile and a personal friend of the victim, didn't hesitate for a moment. She grabbed her purse and a bag of clothes and rushed south to say goodbye to her dear friend, "a hard-working madwoman," as Claudia described Aliro in a conversation with Presentes. During his youth, Aliro was a drag performer and was known as "La Marisol Montenegro."

“I’ve known Aliro for over 30 years; we’re family friends. I know her sisters and aunts. Her death didn’t surprise me as a member of the TravesChile organization, but as a personal friend. I call her ‘friend’ affectionately, even though Aliro didn’t dress as a woman. She was a feminine man, a gay man. Sometimes she wore dresses for parties, but just for fun, between us,” Claudia says, adding that Aliro “was a cook, his favorite job. He wasn’t transgender, as the press has reported, but what matters here is that they killed him anyway.”

Aliro Andrade's niece told Presentes that "next Thursday, March 14th, at 8:00 PM, we will hold a candlelight vigil in front of the house where Aliro lived. There, we will light candles, release balloons into the sky, and sing 'Eres,' that beautiful and emblematic song by Massiel."

[READ ALSO: Brutal attack on a young gay man on a bus in Santiago]

Initial press reports described the crime as a “confusing murder” of a “transgender person,” while the Civil Police, through Subprefect Fabián Silva Vargas, Head of the Homicide Brigade of Puerto Montt, told the local press in Puerto Montt: “Personnel from the Homicide Brigade went to the Bernardo O'Higgins neighborhood in the city of Puerto Montt, along with the Criminalistics Brigade, to determine and document the death of a male individual found deceased inside his bedroom at his home. The autopsy of this 64-year-old individual showed some signs consistent with suffocation; the circumstances of this suffocation are under investigation.”

A fighter

“Aliro was a humble person, he lived in Angelmó, he came from a family where everyone owns a food stall, very enterprising and hardworking people,” Claudia continues. Regarding his death, Claudia confirms the preliminary findings of the investigative police, which indicate fatal blows and strangulation. “He was killed at 3 a.m. on Thursday, March 7th, into Friday, March 8th.”

In an interview with Presentes , Yajaira Andrade, Aliro's niece, stated that "the suspects are in hiding, fugitives from the police," adding that these individuals "have not been identified, we don't know their names, although we do believe that none of them were my uncle Aliro's partner," Yajaira clarified, also reporting that "one of them lived for two weeks at my uncle's house, perhaps as a relative, because my uncle helped everyone. I don't know if they were a couple or not, but he was at the house."

[READ ALSO: Lesbophobia in Santiago: a young woman is in serious condition after a street attack]

“This crime adds to the 47 murders of LGBTQ+ people in the last 10 years, many of them trans people, most of which have gone unpunished,” says Silvia Parada, founder of the organization TravesChile. “Violence against our community has increased; the rights of LGBTQ+ people are being violated. Recently, a gay man was attacked on a bus, and lesbians were attacked on Pío Nono Street in the Bellavista neighborhood. This cannot be happening,” Parada says. “Crimes that occur outside of Santiago receive less attention because they often go unreported,” the trans activist denounces.

“There is a lot of impunity”

The murder of Aliro is under investigation, and family members and activists hope it won't go unpunished as has happened in other cases. Claudia Acuña demands justice and speaks about those other cases, bringing to light a death that no one cared about. “Three years ago, another ‘crazy’ person from Angelmó, also a cook, Pata Blue, died in a fire in his house with the door locked. No one knew about his death. I remember him now because of Aliro's murder, and I hope justice will be served and that this won't go unpunished,” she concludes. Yajaira Andrade, for her part, is convinced that there will be justice in her uncle Aliro's case because “the whole family is united to seek justice, plus we have the support of LGBTQ+ organizations that are backing us with lawyers and raising awareness about this crime based on sexual orientation,” she concludes.

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