Hate crime in Peru: A young doctor is the first LGBT victim of the year
The victim is Kevin Jordan Lucano Tejada, a 29-year-old doctor. His family is demanding a thorough investigation.
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LIMA, Peru. The first hate crime of 2022 against an LGBTI citizen was recorded in the early morning of February 27 in the Lima district of Lince . The National Police found the body of Kevin Jordan Lucano Tejada (29), a young doctor from the Moquegua region, who lived alone in the apartment he had rented for three years.
According to the head of the Homicide Division of the National Police of Peru, Colonel Victor Revoredo, the initial investigations indicate that the murderer is a foreigner.
“(The case) follows the criminal pattern used by some foreign nationals involved in this type of crime, who restrain the victim's upper extremities, hands and forearms, against their back, with the aim of subjecting them to torture. And then, in most cases, extract the password from their cell phone, in this case a high-end iPhone,” the official stated, adding that he did not rule out the possibility that the murderer also forced the victim to provide the passwords to their bank cards.
The scene
During the removal of the body, forensic experts found all the drawers of the furniture open and ransacked, indicating that the killer searched the entire apartment for valuables. According to a friend of Kevin Jordan, the victim and perpetrator met through another friend who introduced them.
According to the autopsy report, the young doctor suffered mechanical asphyxiation and died from strangulation. Therefore, and due to the theft of his belongings, the crime classified in this case is aggravated robbery resulting in death, for which Peruvian law imposes a life sentence.
A few days after the tragic event, images captured by the building's security cameras were released. They show the two of them entering at 2:37 a.m. Later, at 6:15 a.m., the companion leaves alone, carrying two suitcases and a backpack.
Without gender identity, the crimes continue
This is the first hate crime of the year in Peru. It shares similar characteristics with many other cases: brutality followed by the theft of the victims' valuables. However, according to renowned gay activist Manuel Forno, as long as Peru lacks a legal framework for crimes motivated by homophobia or transphobia, these types of cases will continue to go unreported.
“ What is not named does not exist, and by placing a person's gender identity or sexual orientation in a criminal process, we become second-class citizens because any argument can be used in favor of the perpetrator. There are cases where they are suffocated with the cord of the television they steal, and nobody deserves to die like that,” Forno states.
According to Colonel Revoredo, they are finalizing the case with images captured by other nearby cameras, statements from other witnesses and the building's caretaker to find the whereabouts of the murderer.
“You have betrayed the loyalty of a Peruvian citizen, and with strict respect for human rights, we are going to capture you, wherever you are. We are going to locate you and capture you at any cost,” the criminalistics specialist emphasized.
For his part, the lawyer for the Lucano family, Mario Arribas, asked that “once the murderer has been fully identified, the prosecutor must ask a judge, not for a preventive measure but for a preliminary arrest so that he comes to answer to justice.”
#JusticeForKevinJordan
The Peruvian Medical Association published a greeting on its social media accounts on behalf of the institution.
Those who knew Kevin Jordan offered words of affection and recalled moments from the life of the young doctor from Ilo.
Unfortunately, prejudices and stereotypes also manifest themselves in cases involving LGBTI people.
Violence that repeats itself
In response, Manuel Forno believes that this reflects how most Peruvians think about non-heterosexual people.
“ The structural violence we suffer because of our gender identity or sexual orientation begins in Congress, which fails to pass laws in our favor. It continues in the education sector, where an adequate curriculum regarding Comprehensive Sexuality Education is not incorporated. All of this places a very heavy burden on us . And these comments (on social media) are validated because no protection mechanisms are created for us,” explains the prominent activist.
This case outraged citizens and media in Ilo, the capital of Moquegua , so family and friends of Kevin Jordan have started a campaign demanding justice with the hashtag #JusticeForKevinJordan.
“ I congratulate Kevin’s family and friends for being proud to have had a son like him . Because in past cases, the main obstacle to making an important aspect of the crime visible is the family, obscuring the real motives behind the cases,” Forno Castro Pozo points out.
Kevin Jordan Lucano was buried to the rhythm of 'marinera', traditional Peruvian music, which he enjoyed and danced to a week before his murder.
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