Chilean justice system classifies a hate crime as a “crime of passion”
Chilean justice system launches investigation into the murder of a gay cook, calling it a "crime of passion," while family and activists speak of homophobia.
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By Víctor Hugo Robles
“It is a crime of passion ,” Puerto Montt Prosecutor Nathalie Yonsson told the Chilean press, adding that the murder of 64-year-old gay cook Aliro Andrade was “unpremeditated and in contempt of the victim’s condition.”
Establishing the cause of death as "asphyxiation by suffocation with signs of strangulation," the Guarantee Court set a three-month deadline for the completion of various investigative procedures. Prosecutor Yonsson requested pretrial detention, which was granted by the court in the regional capital of Puerto Montt, considering that the defendant's release represents "a danger to public safety and also does not guarantee his appearance in court."
[READ ALSO: Gay cook murdered in Puerto Montt: hate crime reported]
At the hearing, held on March 15, presided over by Judge Marcela Araya, the prosecutor indicated that the events occurred on the night of March 6-7, when the accused Bastián Alberto Chamorro Brito, 25, was at the victim's home and began to beat him and then sexually assaulted him by force, "after which, with the intention of killing him, he squeezed his neck with his hands until he was unconscious, the victim dying from asphyxiation with signs of strangulation."
[READ ALSO: Chile accumulates a record number of violence against LGBT people in the last year]
Following the hearing, when questioned by the local press about the defendant's cooperation in clarifying the facts, Prosecutor Yonsson stated that "the defendant's statement is important but not decisive" because Chamorro Brito "partially admits to the facts." She also noted that the investigation is "quite complex" and that "within these 100 days, it must be determined whether the charges are simple or aggravated, such as any aggravating circumstances related to the victim's sexual orientation in this crime," without mentioning the words "homosexual" or "homophobia" in her detailed report.
“To speak of crimes of passion is discrimination.”
The representative of the Chilean Public Prosecutor's Office maintained that it was a "crime of passion, not premeditated, committed in anger and in contempt of the victim's sexual orientation," adding that these points would be addressed in the investigation. The Public Prosecutor's Office in Puerto Montt told Presentes that "the prosecutor refers to a crime of passion as stemming from the impulse to kill, not in relation to the existence of a relationship."
“To call it a crime of passion is discriminatory because it ignores the homophobic motivation behind the act,” trans activist Silvia Parada told Presentes, while María Eugenia Ignao Andrade declared herself “stunned” by the events and the investigation, which, according to what the prosecutor herself told her, would take “a year to reach a verdict.” “The way my uncle Aliro was left, I think it was a homophobic crime. We believe more than one person was involved, but only one is being blamed,” María Eugenia asserted.
The victim's niece told Presentes that she will continue fighting for justice. Another vigil was held yesterday in Angelmó, where Aliro lived.
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